Long Time Coming
by Nellie Bachesneg
Summary: HTTYD is a great story on its own, but what if there was one more character thrown into the mix of those we all know and love? CONSTANT REVISION, ALL CANON PAIRINGS. Story starts right before first movie. OC. Slight Norse Myth connection. Lots of secrets, some angst. Please read; this story is my baby. Wait, what? Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

" _A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses a moment of experience from which to look ahead."_

 _~Graham Greene_

* * *

"I hate the weather," Hiccup muttered to himself. "One minute it's storming, the next it's blue skies. Thor needs to get his act together." He looked up into the slowly brightening sky, sighing. At least the clouds had disappeared before his morning walk. It was one of the few times he could be alone; good weather made the silence that much better.

He looked down at his feet, scuffing the ground as he tried to focus on his walk. He had wandered the village enough that he didn't have to watch where he was going, and so he was able to let his mind roam where it would.

He was thinking about his latest invention when he saw it.

His feet had carried him down to the docks. He had been about to turn around when the movement caught his eye and snapped him back to reality. He squinted, trying to get a better look at whatever had moved. His eyes suddenly widened in shock, and he ran down the pier.

Someone was trying to climb out of the water.

He grabbed their arms and heaved, cursing his frail build, but he managed to get the soaking-wet person onto the wooden dock. They rolled onto their back, breathing heavily.

Immediately he saw that she was a girl, with hair somewhere between red and brown, who couldn't have been more than a couple years older than him. Her clothes were torn, ragged, and at one point might have been mostly blue, but now were somehow scorched black. Hiccup thought he could also see a few burns here and there on the girl's skin, as well as a few scars. Hiccup brow furrowed in confusion and worry, but the girl seemed more exhausted than hurt. Not knowing what do to, Hiccup tried patting her firmly on the cheek.

"Uh, hello? Are you all right?"

The girl groaned and sat up on her elbows, grimacing in pain as she did so. She blinked her grey eyes a few times before looking at Hiccup.

"I've been better. What… what happened?" Her voice had a strange accent.

"Uh… I don't really know. I just saw you trying to climb onto the dock and, well, I figured you were hurt or something so I helped you up."

He had questions – so many questions – but he knew they could wait. In the meantime, this girl probably needed some medical help.

"Come on, I'll take you to the village elder. She'll help you more than I can."

He stood up and held out a hand to the girl. She took it and with his assistance stood up.

She would have fallen down again if Hiccup hadn't caught her.

" _Oof._ Whoa. Ok, then…"

He positioned her arm so that it was across his shoulders, and together they began to make slow progress up the hill toward the main village. After a minute of constantly tripping and poorly masked grunts of pain, Hiccup began to wonder how he was going to get the girl all the way up to Goethe's hut.

"Hiccup? I' that you?"

Praise the gods for Gobber.

Hiccup turned as quickly as he could toward his mentor.

"Gobber! Thank Thor. Quick, she needs medical help! Can you take her while I wake up Goethe?"

If Gobber had been tired, all signs of it disappeared as he quickly hobbled toward the pair. Once Hiccup was free of the girl's weight, he started sprinting toward the elder's hut.

A short time later the girl found herself in a hut that smelled like an odd combination of herbs, fish, and a hint of sickness. An old woman leaned over her, holding a bowl of something that reeked of something she couldn't identify. The girl tried to shift away from it, but the old woman grabbed her nose and forced the liquid down her throat with a surprising amount of strength. The girl passed out almost immediately.

* * *

"Tell me again exactly what happened," demanded Stoick, pointing at Hiccup with pressed hands.

The fifteen year old rolled his eyes. For what felt like the fiftieth time, he explained the events of that morning.

"Again: I was taking a walk. I happened to go near the docks. I saw someone trying to get onto the pier from the water. I helped her up, saw she needed medical attention, and was taking her to Goethe's when Gobber saw me. He then helped her while I woke up Goethe."

"That's wha' 'appened, chief," confirmed Gobber. "Goethe gave 'er some medicine an' she's been sleepin' ever since. We came and got you as soon as she passed out."

Suddenly the three guys (and Goethe, who was standing silently nearby) heard a groan from inside the hut. They all turned toward it, then looked at the chief. Stoick glanced at Goethe, who nodded. With a deep breath, the chief stood and made his way inside.

"Uh, dad, I'm not sure you're the best person to…"

Hiccup was ignored.

The mystery girl looked up sharply when Stoick entered the hut. She eyed the large man with the imposing red beard stomping toward her, as if sizing him up. Her grey eyes met his when he spoke.

"I trust you had a pleasant rest?" he asked in a tone that was gentle, yet demanded an answer.

The girl kept her mouth shut.

A moment of awkward silence passed. Stoick decided to try the direct approach.

"What's your name?"

She hesitated, then opened her mouth as if to answer, but paused again. Then she frowned in what seemed like confusion.

"I… don't remember."

Stoick frowned as well, concerned. He decided to try a different question.

"Where are you from?" He had noticed an accent when the girl spoke.

"I don't remember."

Uh oh.

"How did you end up on our docks?" he asked.

"I… I think…" Stoick waited paitiently. "There was a storm. I remember… I remember a bright flash of light, and then… then I woke up in your harbor."

Stoick glanced down at the girl's burns and scorched clothing.

"A dragon attack?"

"I… no, I don't think so."

'A bright flash of light…' Stoick mused to himself. 'If she was on the ocean during the storm, she might have been struck by lightning. I'm surprised she's even alive.'

He decided to ask one more question.

"Were you alone?"

"Maybe. I don't remember." The girl looked down at her hands, balled into fists, with a brow furrowed in concentration and frustration. She looked like she might cry. Stoick sighed.

"I'm sorry."

The girl blinked up at him in surprise.

"For what?"

"You're still recovering. I shouldn't be causing you this much stress. We can talk more when you're ready, all right?"

She nodded, then glanced somewhere behind the chief. Stoick turned to see Gobber and Hiccup entering the hut.

"So? Who's our little mystery girl?" asked Gobber.

"She doesn't remember; it sounds like she was caught by the storm last night and I think she got hit with a stray bolt of lightning. It's a miracle you're alive, honestly," he said to the girl.

She smiled tiredly.

"Well, we can't go around calling you 'Mystery Girl'," Hiccup pointed out. "Mind if we give you a name?"

The girl thought for a moment.

"Sure – just, don't make it anything weird."

"Hmm… Why don't you tell us something about yourself?" asked Hiccup. "If the name's based on something you like, you can't hate it, right?"

"I guess." She looked down at herself. "Well, I think my favorite color's blue," she said, picking at a part of her clothing that wasn't burnt.

There was a short silence, then Hiccup snapped his fingers.

"How does Saphira sound?"

The girl blinked. "Hm. I guess that does have a nice ring to it," she said, cracking a small, lopsided smile. She stuck out her hand.

"Hello. I'm Saphira. Nice to meet you."

Hiccup returned the smile in a similar fashion and took the hand. "I'm Hiccup. That's my mentor, Gobber, and you've met Chief Stoick. Welcome to Berk."

* * *

After some bed rest, Goethe gave Saphira the all clear. Hiccup, Stoick, and Gobber then escorted Saphira to the Great Hall so the village could decide what to do with her. It was just after midday.

Everyone who had something to do was out doing it, but they stopped and stared at the new face as she followed the chief and company through the village. Occasionally Stoick would call to someone, and they would join the group. By the time they reached the hall they had an assembly of about fifteen people.

They were talking amongst themselves as they entered the Great Hall. Both Hiccup and Saphira, however, remained silent. They stood at opposite ends of the crowd, listening to the adults bicker about the situation, until Stoick shouted for attention.

"Oi! Listen up!"

The crowd settled.

"You're no doubt wondering why I called you here. Don't worry, this shouldn't take long. Young lady?"

He gestured to the girl. She hesitated for a fraction of a second before walking toward the chief, trying to appear confident.

"This is Saphira," Stoick told the group. "She was caught in the storm last night and was injured. She now has amnesia and needs a place to stay for the time being."

Murmurs of sympathy ran through the crowd. Saphira lifted her chin slightly.

"So: any volunteers?" asked the chief lightly.

The volume of the room lowered significantly.

At least, until the doors burst open and a pair of yaks rushed in.

Multiple shouts of surprise rang out as the animals rampaged through the hall. However the yaks, disoriented by the excitement of it all, soon ran themselves into the wall, putting an end to the chaos.

"That… was… AWESOME!" shouted a pair of voices. Stoick pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. Then he snapped his eyes over to the twins who were pulling themselves off the floor.

"RUFFNUT! TUFFNUT! WHAT IN THOR'S NAME DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

"Uh, riding yaks chief. What does it look like?" said the boy.

"Hey, who are you?" asked the girl, walking up to Saphira.

"I do believe that is a new victim, dear sister."

"You mean friend, brother."

"Oh, right, of course. Friend."

"Uh… who are you?" asked Saphira.

"These are the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston," said Stoick. "And they are going to be cleaning the yak stables _again_." He gave them a look that could melt steel.

The twins took one look at their chief's face, and each grabbed one of Saphira's wrists.

"Thanks for the offer Chief," said Ruffnut.

"But I think it's time to do some bonding with our new vict- friend."

"See ya!" they both called over their shoulders as they dragged Saphira out of the hall.

"Great, now they 'ave a hostage," said Gobber, walking up to Stoick.

The Chief gave a low grunt before facing the hall again.

"Bertha, Darrell, put the yaks back where they belong. Mr. and Mrs. Thorston, a word if you please. The rest of you are dismissed."

The crowd slowly filed out of the hall, muttering among themselves. Hiccup stopped and sat down on the stone steps outside to wait for Gobber, who had of course stayed inside.

A short while later the Thorston parents, Stoick, and Gobber emerged. They all looked stressed. Gobber and Stoick watched the other two go, then the chief turned to his friend.

"I'm going to do some paperwork. I need the alone time," he said, rubbing his temple.

"Aye, you do that Stoick," said Gobber as the red-bearded man started his way home.

The blacksmith then turned to Hiccup.

"So, lad, you ready to get started in the forge?"

"What happened with the Thorstens?" asked Hiccup.

"Oh, your father just asked if they would take in Saphira."

Hiccup's brow creased in worry. "Thor help her."

"You've got that right." A shadow passed over Gobber's face, but he shook it off. "Now let's get that fire started!"

* * *

The next day began as usual for Hiccup. He got up, took a walk, and worked in the forge. He spent most of his time fixing farm tools, and occasionally sharpening or polishing a weapon. Whenever the work died down, he would sneak off to his corner of the smithy and work on his inventions.

He was straightening a bent-out-of-shape hoe when he heard the accented voice.

"Excuse me, um… Gobber, right?"

"Tha's what they call me."

"I was wondering if maybe you would have a position available in your smithy?"

There was a pause.

"You're askin' for a job?"

"Yes, I mean, if that's all right."

"How much do you know about blacksmithing?"

"Well, uh…"

"Right, you've got that amnesia thing. Well, I suppose an extra pair of hands doesn't hurt. Hiccup!"

The boy had paused in his work to listen, and jumped at his shouted name. He went to the front of the shop. Saphira looked at him with mild surprise.

'She probably didn't expect someone so scrawny to be working here,' he thought. He gave her a small smile, which she returned.

"Hiccup, start showing Saphira around. We've got a new guest."

"Please, Saphira, enter our grand palace," the boy said sarcastically. She smiled wider as she walked into the shop. Gobber continued working while they toured.

"So, uh, there's really nothing that special to see," said Hiccup. "You've got your forge, a bed of coals, bellows, and the never-ending pile of weapons and tools to be fixed." He glanced over at the older girl and saw that she was completely focused, taking everything in with a critical eye. If he hadn't known any better, Hiccup would have said this wasn't her first time in a forge.

Saphira's eye then passed over his personal section of the forge. "What's that area?"

"Oh, that's my work station. I'm a bit of an inventor in my spare time," he said proudly.

Gobber snorted in the distance.

"At least, I would be if anything worked," he clarified, shooting an angry look at the back of the blacksmith. Saphira stepped closer and looked over his blueprints. Hiccup shifted uncomfortably.

Saphira began to smile.

'Great, she's gonna laugh at me.'

"Hiccup, these are amazing!"

Pause.

"What?"

"These all look really cool! How did you come up with them on your own? I bet you're, like, the smartest kid on Berk."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah!" She turned back toward him. "Wait, what's wrong?"

Hiccup blinked. "Oh, um, nothing. Just… no one really appreciates my inventions like that."

"…no one?"

"Well, you haven't been around long enough to notice, but around here I'm known as Hiccup the Useless."

Saphira snorted. "You've gotta be kidding me."

Hiccup frowned sadly. "Nope."

Saphira's eyes widened, then her expression hardened.

"Well, for what it's worth, I don't think you're useless. You work in the smithy, for the love of Thor. It's not an easy job, right? You should be proud."

Hiccup looked at Saphira in surprise. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, then realized that he wasn't sure how to respond to praise.

Saphira tilted her head to one side, looking at him in concern. "You ok?"

"I, um, yeah. Thanks, by the way. Um, do you mind if I get you started on a few chores? Since you're working here now, I guess."

"…Yeah, sure," said Saphira, staring at the younger boy thoughtfully as he led the way.

Saphira was apparently a quick learner, so it did not take long for her to get the hang of smithy work. Soon the teenagers began to talk of other things.

"So what is Berk like?" asked Saphira.

"It's twelve days north of hopeless, and a few degrees South of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery," he half-joked.

Saphira snorted. "Is it really that bad? What about the village itself?"

"In a word, sturdy. And it's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets."

"Huh. I guess that's pretty cool."

"The only problems are the pests," agreed Hiccup.

"Right," said Saphira. "Almost forgot. Ever consider moving to another island?"

"Most people would leave," said Hiccup. "Not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues."

Saphira burst out laughing. Hiccup grinned a little too.

"Are you sure they don't call you 'Hiccup the Comedian'?" she asked lightly. Hiccup snorted.

"I wish."

"Ok, I have to ask. How did you get stuck with a name like 'Hiccup'?"

Hiccup blinked. He had though she would have asked about the 'useless' part. He shrugged it off. "It's not the worst. Parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls. Like our charming Viking demeanor wouldn't do that."

At that moment there was a crash from Gobber's side of the forge, and the man let out a colorful string of curse words. Both teenagers laughed this time.

"Oi!" called Gobber. "You two get back to work, or I'll give you limbs to match mine!"

They tried to stifle their laughter and did as they were told, but Hiccup couldn't stop smiling.

Saphira was one of the friendliest people he'd met in a while.

He really hoped she'd stay that way.

* * *

 **A/N**

So after literal years of writing this fanfic to fall asleep at night (which I know some of you do too; hooray for not being alone!) I finally. FINALLY. Started actually writing it. Regardless of how many people read it I'm just gonna keep putting stuff up (time allowing I mean I am still a student) because I've already spent WAY too much time just getting the backstory ready for this thing... so yeah if you are reading this first thanks and second please stick with it cause it's gonna get good (at least in my opinion). And a special shoutout to my friend HopefulHelpful who initially Beta'd this for putting up with my weirdness for basically forever. You know who you are and you rock.

Oh, and I own nothing except my OC.


	2. Chapter 2

"DRAGON RAID!"

The shout startled Hiccup awake. He shook his head to clear it before throwing his clothes on as fast as he could. He was still a bit groggy as he went downstairs and opened the door, an action unfortunately noticed by a Monstrous Nightmare. He stood shocked for a moment before closing the door in the dragon's fiery face.

"Dragons," he reminded himself, a look of fear still on his face.

He decided to go out the back door.

He then made his way through the maze of Vikings, dragons, weapons, fire, and various pieces of wood. At one point his father caught him by the scruff of his neck and yelled at him to get inside.

'Not because his son's safety is an issue, of course,' though Hiccup bitterly. 'He just doesn't want me causing trouble.'

Finally he made it to the forge.

"Ah! Nice of you to join the party," Gobber greeted him. "I thought you'd been carried off."

Saphira was already there as well. Hiccup returned her friendly smile with a smirk.

"Who me? Nah, come on!" he put on his leather apron and started to lift a ginormous hammer from the wall. "I'm _way_ too muscular for their taste. They wouldn't know what to do with all… this." He flexed his arm.

"They need toothpicks, don't they?" teased Gobber. Saphira laughed.

Hiccup's heart felt a small pang; even after all this time, he was still a bit sensitive about his stature.

He pushed the thought out of his mind as he got to work. He threw open the front of the shop and began taking damaged weapons back to the forge. Outside he could hear war cries and the sound of things exploding or catching on fire. One strike came particularly close, and the fire brigade rushed past the smithy. Hiccup leaned out the window to watch them.

"Who're they?" asked Saphira, coming over to him.

"Oh and that's Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and..."

Another explosion lit up the plaza.

"Astrid," finished Hiccup dreamily.

Saphira gave him a look. He watched the other teens rush by the stall.

"Their job is so much cooler," said Hiccup half to himself as he started to climb out after them.

He was stopped, however, by a hooked hand. Saphira fought the urge to stare as Hiccup was lifted away from the window by Gobber.

"Ah, come on. Let me out, please. I need to make my mark!" pleaded Hiccup.

"Oh, you've made plenty of marks. All in the wrong places," pointed out the blacksmith.

"Please, two minutes. I'll kill a dragon, my life will get infinitely better – I might even get a date!"

"You can't lift a hammer. You can't swing an axe," Gobber picked up a bola from a nearby table. "You can't even throw one of these!"

A random Viking then proceeded to grab the bola out of Gobber's hand and demonstrate the correct method of throwing it.

"Okay fine," said Hiccup as he moved to his section of the forge, "but _this_ will throw it for me." He patted a wooden contraption that looked like some kind of wheelbarrow, causing it to suddenly open and fire a bola past Gobber and into the face of a waiting Viking.

"See, now this right here is what I'm talking about," said Gobber.

"Mild calibration issue…"

"Hiccup. If you ever want to get out there to fight dragons, you need to stop all... this."

"But... you just pointed to all of me."

"Yes! That's it! Stop being all of you."

Saphira, who had been watching the exchange, raised her eyebrows.

"Ohhhh..." said Hiccup, stalling as he recovered from the verbal blow.

"Ohhhhh, yes," responded Gobber mockingly.

"You, sir, are playing a dangerous game," warned Hiccup, using his attitude to mask the pain. "Keeping this much, raw...Vikingness contained... There will be consequences!"

"I'll take my chances," said Gobber flatly as he tossed Hiccup a sword. "Sword. Sharpen. Now."

Hiccup lugged the sword to the grinding wheel, a sour look on his face. Saphira approached him cautiously.

"You doing ok there, Hiccup?"

"One day I'll get out there," he told her confidently. He had to believe it was true.

"Uh… why would you want to? It seems a bit… fiery."

"Because killing a dragon is everything around here," Hiccup told her. "A Nadder head is sure to get me at least noticed. Gronkles are tough. Taking down one of those would definitely get me a girlfriend. A Zippelback? Exotic. Two heads, twice the status. And then there's the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. They have this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire. But the ultimate prize is the dragon no one has ever seen."

At that moment a high-pitched whistling filled the air. Hiccup, Saphira behind him, rushed to the window.

"We call it the-"

"NIGHT FURY!" someone shouted.

"GET DOWN!" called another.

The whistling increased in intensity, until suddenly there was a flash of purple light and a catapult tower collapsed. Saphira's eyes widened.

"This thing never steals food, never shows itself, and never misses," said Hiccup with almost reverent awe. Then his gaze hardened. "No one has ever killed a Night Fury," he told Saphira. "That's why I'm going to be the first." Saphira looked at the teen with shock.

He turned, only to see Gobber trading his stone hammer of a hand for an axe.

"Man the fort, Hiccup, they need me out there!" he declared. Then he looked the boy straight in the eye.

"Stay. Put. There." Hiccup just looked at him. "You know what I mean," finished Gobber brilliantly before running out of the smithy with a war cry. Hiccup didn't even hesitate as he turned on his heel, grabbed his contraption, and made to follow Gobber outside. Saphira grabbed his arm.

"Wait, um…"

"Please don't try to stop me."

"Then let me come with you."

Hiccup blinked.

"…fine."

The pair made their way through the crowds of fighting Vikings, shouting apologies (Saphira) and excuses (Hiccup) over their shoulders. They ran out of the main village and onto a cliff with a clear view.

Faster and with more precision than anyone would have thought possible, Hiccup readied his contraption and pointed it at the night sky.

"Come on. Give me something to shoot at, give me something to shoot at," Saphira heard Hiccup whisper under his breath. She was nervously pacing behind Hiccup.

Another high-pitched whistle began to sound, catching both teens' attention. Hiccup began frantically searching the sky. When the whistle reached its peak, a flash of lavender destroyed another catapult tower. Against the light of the explosion, Hiccup finally found a reference. He fired his contraption, and was thrown back from the force of it. He and Saphira both scrambled forward, desperate to see what would happen.

Suddenly there was a thwack, followed by a dragon's screech of pain.

"Oh I hit it! Yes, I hit it! Did you see that?" shouted Hiccup with his arms in the air, noting where the dragon seemed to crash before turning to Saphira. Her eyes were wide and her hands were covering her mouth.

However, her gaze was not on him.

Hiccup turned around and dropped his arms.

"Not you..."

The Monstrous Nightmare made ready to strike. Saphira grabbed Hiccup's wrist and they both started running down the hill towards the village, the dragon close behind them. They took shelter behind a large brazier, flinching as the side opposite to them burst into flames. Hiccup and Saphira looked behind and to the right of their shelter, not noticing the dragon's head nearing them from the left.

Suddenly, a blur of red, green, and gray tackled the dragon. The two teens took the opportunity to get out well out of the way as the chief and the Monstrous Nightmare wrestled. After a moment they separated and faced each other. Stoick straightened his helmet. Saphira nudged Hiccup, her eyes wide.

"Is he really gonna take him head-on?" Hiccup shrugged, his heart still pounding from the near-death experience.

"That's Stoick the Vast. Chief of the tribe. They say that when he was a baby he popped a dragon's head clean off of its shoulders. Do I believe it?"

At this point Stoick began punching the dragon repeatedly in the face.

"Yes I do."

The dragon finally relented and escaped to the air. Stoick turned to the two teenagers, just as the brazier pole they had used for shelter from the fire collapsed, causing the flaming basket to roll its way through the village. Both Hiccup and Saphira winched as Vikings narrowly dodged its destructive path. "There's… one more thing you need to know," mumbled Hiccup before Stoick spun him around and gave him the glare to end all glares. "Sorry, dad."

Hiccup's father simply stood there, his gaze furious. Hiccup shifted uncomfortably, watching the dragons carry their food away.

"Okay, but I hit a Night Fury," he blurted.

Stoick just grabbed him and started dragging him toward their house, aware of the villagers' eyes on them.

"It's not like the last few times, Dad," Hiccup continued in a pleading tone. "I mean I really actually hit it. You guys were busy and I had a very clear shot. It went down, just off Raven Point. Let's get a search party out there, before it-"

"STOP! Just...stop," said Stoick, releasing Hiccup. "Every time you step outside, disaster follows. Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter's almost here and I have an entire village to feed!"

There was an awkward pause.

"Well, between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don't ya think?" said Hiccup flippantly.

"This isn't a joke, Hiccup!" Stoick yelled. Then he sighed. "Why can't you follow the simplest orders?"

"I can't stop myself! I see a dragon and I have to just... kill it, you know? It's who I am, Dad."

Stoick put a hand to his head with a quiet oath.

"You are… many things, Hiccup. But a dragon killer is not one of them."

Hiccup visibly slumped.

"Get back to the house," continued Stoick. He gestured to Gobber. "Make sure he gets there. I have his mess to clean up."

Saphira watched Hiccup go with a look of concern. She maneuvered through the crowd, following him inconspicuously. She paused as he walked past the group of teenagers she and Hiccup had seen earlier, and listened as they teased him.

"Quite the performance," commented Tuffnut.

"I've never seen anyone mess up that badly. That helped!" chimed in Snotlout.

"Thank you, thank you. I was trying, so..." he trailed off, unable to keep up his humor for his shame. Hiccup avoided Astrid's glare as Gobber led him away.

* * *

Ruffnut and Tuffnut grinned as Hiccup was led away, seemingly distracted by his humiliating exit, but they hadn't failed to notice Saphira creep up behind them. Then they heard the chief call her name.

They watched as the young woman stepped out from behind their group.

"Wow, she doesn't look nervous at all," whispered Tuffnut.

"Guess we're already rubbing off on her," responded Ruffnut proudly.

Snotout shushed them with his usual angry glare, and they began to listen to what the chief was saying.

"…that you're new around here, but that excuse can only get you so far on Berk. I won't blame you this time, but there will be consequences for any future… incidents that you take part in."

He shot a look at the twins, who proceeded to appear indignant. Stoick sighed.

"Just be careful," he said before addressing the other villagers, bellowing instructions. Saphira walked back to the twins.

"Hey, you got off the hook," said Ruffnut.

"Consider yourself lucky," said Tuffnut. "We never get off the hook."

"That's because you two have been pranking, destroying, and just causing chaos since you were born!" said Snotlout.

"A long and glorious legacy that shall go down in history," agreed Tuffnut solemnly.

"Idiot," growled the other boy, throwing the nearest rock at Tuffnut's helmet.

"Hey!" exclaimed Tuff as he tackled Snotlout. Ruff started cheering them on, though it was unclear who she was rooting for.

Saphira took that as her cue to leave. She headed over to Astrid, who so far seemed to be less insane.

"Hey."

"Hey," said the blond, twirling her axe absentmindedly and not looking at the other girl.

"So… does… that sort of thing happen… often?" she asked awkwardly, gesturing toward the two young Vikings wrestling in the dirt.

Astrid shot a glance at the spectacle.

"Yeah, they do that a lot. I don't get it, though. They're wasting so much energy fighting each other when they could use it for training."

"I take it you're pretty serious about all that, then?"

Astrid looked at Saphira directly for the first time.

"If by 'all that' you mean becoming the best fighter on Berk so I can defend my people and honor my family name, then yes, I'm very serious about it."

"I will… keep that in mind," said Saphira timidly, quaking a little under Astrid's intense gaze. Astrid realized the impression she was giving and softened her expression.

"Sorry, didn't mean for it to come out like that. It's just that dragon training starts soon, and I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself to be the best."

"Before it even starts?"

"Is there anything wrong with being prepared?"

"No, but… wow, guess you really are committed."

Astrid snorted as if to say, "Duh."

There was a slightly awkward pause.

"So…" piped up Saphira again, "What do you think of… Hiccup?"

Astrid's gaze darkened.

"He's useless, especially in a fight. I guess it's not all his fault; he was born scrawny, so he was never able to keep up with the rest of us. But he's always trying to prove that's he just as good as the rest of us when the reality is that he's just… not."

Saphira hesitated for a moment.

"But he can't be all bad, right?"

"Well sure. From what I've heard Hiccup's doing pretty well in the smithy. But he's just doing his job; congratulating him on that would be like congratulating him on breathing air. Where it really counts is the battlefield, and Hiccup just isn't cut out for it. Which wouldn't be so bad if he would just accept it and move on with his life, but NO! He just has to go out and 'prove himself' in every single raid, and so he gets in everyone's way, and the next thing you know all the sheep have been carried off!" finished Astrid angrily. Saphira had started backing away.

"Right, well… I'm just gonna go…"

With that Saphira began running in the direction Hiccup had gone, in the hope of finding one of the few people who weren't completely crazy.

* * *

 **A/N**

Once again, shout out to HopefulHelpful for initially Beta'ing this. And to the three of you who added this story to your favorites! I honestly didn't expect that so soon. Feel free to review with constructive criticism, compliments, or random stuff that has nothing to do with anything. I won't judge. Next chapter will be up before the end of the week!

Oh, and I own nothing except my OC.


	3. Chapter 3

"I really did hit one."

"Sure, Hiccup."

Hiccup and Gobber were walking together up the hill towards Hiccup and Stoick's house. As soon as they were out of earshot of the other villagers, Hiccup started ranting about his father.

"He never listens."

"Well, it runs in the family."

"And when he does, it's always with this... disappointed scowl. Like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich."

Now on the front step of his house, Hiccup suddenly turned and gave a loud yet startlingly accurate impression of his father.

"Excuse me, barmaid! I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring! I ordered an extra-large boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side! This here – this is a talking fish bone!"

"Now, you're thinking about this all wrong," said Gobber. "It's not so much what you look like. It's what's _inside_ that he can't stand!"

There was a pause as Hiccup looked at his mentor incredulously. How was _that_ supposed to make him feel better?

"Thank you for summing that up," he said sarcastically as he turned to go inside the house.

"Look." Hiccup paused. "The point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not."

"I just want to be one of you guys," said Hiccup softly before closing the door behind him.

Gobber sighed and gave a sympathetic look toward the door before turning and walking back down the path, lost in thought. As he turned a corner, he felt someone crash into him.

"Oof!"

"Oh, sorry lass, I didn't see you there." Saphira regained her bearings and smiled.

"That's ok."

"Where're you headed in such a rush?"

"Oh, uh, I was looking for Hiccup."

"You sure that's a good idea, lass? I mean, he's a good kid no matter what the others think of him, but you're going to get some weird looks if you're plannnin' on bein' friends with 'im."

"It's a little too late for that," pointed out Saphira brightly.

"Eh, it's your choice. He's in his house on the top of the hill. Just follow the path."

Saphira glanced up the hill. A flash of surprise crossed her face.

"What is it?" asked Gobber.

"Oh, nothing. Just, uh… It… looks… farther than I thought." She smiled. Gobber looked at her dubiously.

"Uh huh. Well, quite frankly I actually have someplace to be so I'm just going to pretend I believe you. See ya later, lass."

She nodded and ran past him. Gobber continued walking, but couldn't help glancing back.

Saphira was already out of sight.

* * *

"Either we finish them or they'll finish us!" shouted Stoick over the many voices of his Vikings. They had been in the hall for a good hour and he was still trying to get his point across.

He fought the urge to rub his temples.

"It's the only way we'll be rid of them! If we find the nest and destroy it, the dragons will leave. They'll find another home." He drew his dagger and, frustrated, thrust it into the table. It sunk through the section of the map that, maddeningly, had yet to be charted.

"One more search. Before the ice sets in," he declared, staring the room down.

The Vikings were hesitant at best.

"Those ships never come back," someone pointed out.

"We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard," retorted Stoick matter-of-factly. "Now who's with me?" he asked, throwing his fist in the air. Only mumbles, soft excuses, and head scratches responded. No one looked the chief in the eye.

Stoick narrowed his gaze. 'Fine,' he thought. 'If inspiration won't work…'

"All right," he told the crowd calmly. "Those who stay will look after Hiccup."

Suddenly hands flew into the air, along with shouts of enthusiasm.

"To the ships!"

"I'm with you Stoick!"

"That's more like it," said Stoick dryly. As the crowd filed out of the room, he sighed. He hadn't really meant to throw his son under the bus like that, but at least it had been effective. He saw Gobber sitting at a table nearby and walked over to his friend.

"Great, I'll pack my undies," promised the blacksmith as he drained his tankard.

"No, I need you to stay and train some new recruits," Stoick reminded him.

"Oh, perfect. And while I'm busy, Hiccup can cover the stall. Molten steel, razor sharp blades, lots of time to himself, not to mention a novice with a single day of experience...what could possibly go wrong?"

Stoick sunk down onto the bench next to Gobber. Why did his son have to be such a problem?

"What am I going to do with him Gobber?"

There was a pause.

"Put him in training with the others."

"No, I'm serious," said Stoick looking at the other man.

"So am I!"

"He'd be killed before you let the first dragon out of its cage," said Stoick.

"Oh, you don't know that," said Gobber with a wave of his hand.

"I do know that, actually."

"No, you don't."

"No, actually I do."

"No you don't!"

"Listen!" said Stoick, breaking the cycle and getting up again to pace. "You know what he's like. From the time he could crawl he's been...different. Not in the way that… she was, though. He just doesn't listen, and has the attention span of a sparrow. I take him fishing and he goes hunting for... for trolls!

"Trolls exist!" interjected Gobber. "They steal your socks. But only the left ones; what's with that?" He intentionally ignored Stoick's allusion. Bringing that to the forefront would only make him more upset.

"When I was a boy..." continued Stoick.

"Oh here we go," mumbled Gobber, grabbing another drink.

"My father told me to bang my head against a rock and I did it. I thought it was crazy, but I didn't question him. And you know what happened?"

"You got a headache."

"That rock split in two. It taught me what a Viking could do, Gobber. He could crush mountains, level forests, tame seas! Even as a boy, I knew what I was, what I had to become." He sat down again.

"Hiccup is not that boy."

"You can't stop him, Stoick," said Gobber with full seriousness and sympathy. "You can only prepare him. Look, I know it seems hopeless. But the truth is you won't always be around to protect him. He's going to get out there again. He's probably out there now!"

Stoick knew Gobber was right, as usual. He wouldn't always be around to protect his son, even though the thought pained him.

'It's better me than him,' he thought. 'I can't lose him too.'

Maybe dragon training wasn't such a bad idea after all.

* * *

Hiccup didn't stop running until the village was out of sight. Out of breath, he bent over with his hand on a tree.

"Well finally; for a minute I was worried you were gonna run all the way around the island," said a voice from behind him.

"GAH!" Hiccup leapt backwards, a hand on his dagger. He curved over with relief when he saw Saphira.

"Don't… do… that…" he said, breathing heavily. Saphira, however, smiled, with not a trace of fatigue. She walked over and clapped him on the back.

"Oh don't be like that. What's wrong with a little fun?"

Hiccup glared at her. She sighed.

"Fine, I won't do it. As much as I was planning to. Which will still be pretty often."

His breath back, Hiccup groaned and straightened. "Whatever. Why are you here?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm here to help you find the dragon."

Hiccup looked at her dubiously.

"What's with _that_ look? I saw you hit the dragon, I know it's out there. And no matter what anyone else says, it needs to be found. We need to find it."

"What's in it for you?" asked the boy. Saphira threw her arm around his shoulder.

"Quality time with a friend!" she said in a voice dripping with false sweetness.

"Seriously?" Saphira released him.

"Well, kinda. We are friends, and as such we should continue to get to know each other better," she said firmly. "But also, you said this was a dragon no one's ever seen before, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Then who in their right mind _wouldn't_ want to find it?" she asked with a grin.

Hiccup sighed. "You're gonna come no matter what I say, right?"

"Wow, friendship is paying off already!"

"Yeah, sure. Let's go," said Hiccup. His words sounded apathetic, but he was grateful for the company. He just hoped it didn't backfire.

"Awesome!" exclaimed Saphira, and they both made their way deeper into the woods.

On the way, Saphira kept asking Hiccup questions about anything and everything.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Really? Out of all the questions you could have gone with, that's your best one?"

"What? It's simple, and I think the answer says a lot about a person."

"Well, if you really want to know, it's red."

"Hmm…" said Saphira, looking him over. "Interesting."

"I'm… not sure I even want to know what you're thinking."

"All right, next question. How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"Seriously!?"

"Yeah, I know, I look younger."

"No, I mean… well yeah, now that you mention it…"

Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"Anyway," said Saphira quickly, "I'm… I think I'm seventeen." Hiccup looked at her.

"You remember?"

"Uh, not exactly, I guess it's… just a feeling?"

"A feeling."

"Oh shut up how am I supposed to know?"

"Right, sorry."

"So… next question."

"Shoot."

"Where's your mom?"

Hiccup stopped walking and turned to Saphira with a sharper look than he perhaps meant. She took a step back.

"Woah, sorry. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

Hiccup turned away.

"No, it's just… don't ever mention my mother in front of Stoick. In fact, it's probably best if you didn't mention family at all around him."

Saphira paused, waiting for him to explain. After a pause, Hiccup sighed and started walking again.

"Long story short, my mother was killed by dragons during a raid when I was a baby. I never knew her."

Another pause.

"I'm sorry."

"Well, that's war. People die."

It was quiet for a while. Hiccup didn't look at Saphira. The only sounds were the birds and the feet trampling the ground. Eventually Hiccup couldn't stand it anymore.

"So, you've asked me all these questions; what can you tell me about yourself?"

"Huh?" asked Saphira as though someone had just woken her up. "Oh, um, not much unfortunately."

"Well, obviously you can't tell me about your past, but you have to have discovered some things about yourself."

"Well, from what I can tell, I like having both sides of a story," said Saphira thoughtfully. "I don't like it when someone just tells you something and everyone acts like you're supposed to accept it as truth. I think truth is something that needs to be sought out."

"Wow. That was deep."

"Gimme a break, I just don't have the answers for any simple questions," said the girl. "Speaking of which, it's my turn." She grinned slyly. "You like that Astrid girl, don't you?"

Hiccup tripped at the unexpected twist in the conversation.

"W-what? I uh… I don't know…"

"I'm just gonna stop you right there. You're a terrible liar."

"Ok fine, yes. Please, _please_ don't tell anyone."

Saphira shook her head. "Tsk, tsk. Don't you know that you have to _talk_ to a girl before she can start liking you?"

"Talk to Astrid? Are you kidding? She's _way_ out of my league," he said miserably. "I probably don't even have a chance with her."

"Oh, you never know," She gave Hiccup a large grin. "Don't give up hope; who knows what'll happen?" He tried to return her smile and mumbled a thank you.

"Sure, don't mention it."

They walked in comfortable silence for a few minutes.

"So… are we there yet?"

Hiccup pulled out his notebook, flipping to a page with a simple but well-drawn map of where they were headed. Saphira peeked over his shoulder.

"Yeah, we should be getting close," he said.

"Great. You're a really good artist, by the way."

"Oh, um… I just like sketching in my spare time."

"Nice. Do you ever write?"

"No, that's more Fishlegs's area."

"I didn't get the chance to talk to him. Is he nice?"

"Yeah, he's ok. He's a bit of an outcast too, but he actually knows his stuff when it comes to dragons. He's probably the closest thing I had to a friend – before you came, I mean."

"Oh. Well, I'll have to meet him sometime."

"Yeah." Hiccup turned back to his notebook and started marking places the dragon could have landed with x's. When he looked up again, he saw that they were nearing the top of a ridge.

"Ok, this should be it," he said, walking faster up the hill but keeping his eyes on his book. At the top of the ridge, he closed his eyes, looked up, and opened them again. He sighed in disappointment at the landscape of never-ending trees and fog. Saphira came up behind him, took in the view, and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, we'll find the dragon. Don't worry."

Hiccup only nodded as he started making his way down the hill. Once again he looked at his map, drawing more x's. It wasn't long, however, before he became frustrated and just scribbled angrily on the page before shutting it with the pencil inside. He rolled his eyes is exasperation.

"Ugh, the gods hate me," he complained. "Some people lose their knife or their mug. No, not me. I manage to lose an entire dragon!" He threw his arms into the air.

"Hey, calm down. We haven't lost anything yet," said Saphira reassuringly. "Here's an idea; let's split up so we can cover more ground. I'll go that way, and you go…" she looked around, "that way," she finished with a point.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," mumbled Hiccup, watching her leave before heading in the direction she had indicated. He slapped a branch out of his way angrily, giving an exclamation of pain when it rebounded into his eye.

That was when he noticed the broken tree the branch was attached to. His gaze followed the toppled pine, and landed on a deep track carved into the ground. All other thoughts fled from Hiccup's mind as he carefully climbed into the channel and followed it to the top of the next ridge. He looked over the edge and immediately dropped down to the ground with a gasp.

His breath suddenly became shallow. He had only caught a glimpse, but he knew a dragon when he saw one. Still, he peeked over the top of the ridge to get a better look. He stayed upright when he saw a lack of movement.

'Did I… is it dead?' he thought with morbid curiosity.

He was then struck with the realization that it might very well be alive and just biding its time. He scrambled for his only weapon, the dagger, and pointed it at the dragon with shallow breaths. Glancing down at the knife, he tried not to think about how ineffective it would be if the dragon really was faking.

Hiccup hardened his resolve and slipped down the hill to behind a rock right next to the dragon. He held the dagger as if his life depended on it – which, he realized, it might. His breath was still uneven. He crept around the rock, gaining confidence when the dragon still didn't move.

"Oh wow. I did it. I did it! Oh, this fixes everything! Yes!" He went right up to the fallen Night Fury. "I have brought down this mighty beast!" he exclaimed proudly, putting his foot on the dragon.

It moved.

Hiccup sprang backwards so that his back hit the boulder. However, the dragon was only breathing, about as heavily as he was. Hiccup slowly approached it, his dagger extended in front of him. He started to examine the dragon closely for the first time.

He saw pitch black scales, rubbing against coarse rope where the bola had wrapped around it. The wings were leathery, like a bat's, and ungracefully folded thanks to the dragon's position on the ground. Against his better judgment, Hiccup looked at its face.

A single bright green eye met his brown.

Hiccup grimaced and looked back at the dragon's underbelly. However, he looked back at its face when it groaned. As he looked into its eye, he saw only fear that reflected his own.

Hiccup took a shuddering breath and adjusted his grip on the dagger. He took another, steadier breath, and hardened his gaze.

"I'm gonna… I'm going to kill you, Dragon," he stated, avoiding glancing at its face even as his gaze was drawn to it. "I'm gonna… gonna cut out your heart and take it to my father." He closed his eyes. "I'm a Viking."

He snapped his eyes open and looked the dragon straight in the eye.

"I am a VIKING!"

He adjusted his grip on the dagger again, staring into the distance at nothing as he psyched himself up. He raised the dagger over his head with a deep breath, ready to strike, but he couldn't help but look at the dragon's eye once more. Again he saw only fear – sharp, vulnerable fear. Hiccup then felt a pang in his chest, but he ignored it and raised the dagger again. The dragon groaned. Hiccup felt the pang again. He grunted, trying to summon up some sort of hate or rage for the helpless dragon.

But he just couldn't do it.

The tension in his arms gave out, and his hands fell to his sides. He looked at his dagger, then at the dragon, in pain and suffering within its restraints.

"I did this," he said aloud, shamefully.

He turned to leave, but glanced back. Once again he stared at the ropes. Then he bowed his head in resignation, knowing what he was about to do was stupid beyond belief.

He knelt down next to the Night Fury and began cutting away the ropes.

He did his work quickly, glancing behind him to make sure nobody was watching. He didn't notice the dragon's eyes open wide.

As soon as the last rope had been cut, the dragon leapt up with a roar. It pinned Hiccup against the boulder, putting a foot on his chest so that its claws were against his neck. Hiccup breathing became shallow and he looked up.

His face and the dragon's were inches apart. The bright green eyes stared unblinkingly into his. Hiccup could only stare back. His heart was beating faster than it ever had before.

His eyes widened as the dragon then reared back, opening its mouth as if to blast him. Hiccup closed his eyes.

The following roar almost made him deaf.

But that was it. The dragon suddenly turned and flew off into the trees, crashing into things for reasons Hiccup didn't really stop to consider as he grabbed his dagger, got up, took two steps and fainted.

* * *

 **A/N**

I own nothing except my OC.


	4. Chapter 4

Hiccup woke up to a stinging sensation in his cheeks. With a groan he opened his eyes. It took him a moment to focus, but he made out the shape of Saphira kneeling next to him. He heard her breathe a sigh of relief.

"Good, I was beginning to worry I would have to carry you all the way back to Berk."

Hiccup sat up slowly. "Ugh. Don't get your hopes up just yet."

"What happened?"

"Well, I found the dragon."

"What? Really?"

"Yup." He got to his knees, but didn't try standing. "It was tied up by the bola, and I thought it was injured. I almost killed it, but…" he trailed off and looked at Saphira, realizing how dumb and weak he would seem.

"But…?" prompted the girl. Hiccup looked away and closed his eyes.

"But… I didn't," he mumbled.

With a sharp stab of clarity he suddenly realized what that meant. His eyes snapped open and all the color drained from his face.

He had just released a _Night Fury_ back into the world, after he'd had the chance to kill it. He was a traitor. If his dad found out – if _anyone_ found out…

Hiccup felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up into Saphira's face.

' _Thor help me._ '

"What do you mean, you didn't kill it?" she asked insistently, as if she was repeating herself. However, there was no threatening tone in her voice, just curiosity. That put Hiccup slightly more at ease, but he still stammered nervously as he spoke. The cat was out of the bag now; at the very least, he could try to make Saphira understand.

"I-I was about to, i-it was injured a-and defenseless, but…" his thoughts suddenly flashed back to that green eye, looking at him – through him. It had been like staring at a mirror. Hiccup's tension deflated as he realized, "… I just couldn't do it."

There was a pause as Saphira processed his whispered admission. Hiccup didn't look at her.

"So… where is he now?" she asked quietly after a minute. Her tone of voice hinted nothing toward what she was thinking.

"I honestly don't know," said Hiccup. "I cut away the bola and it flew off."

Another pause. Then…

"That must have been hard."

Hiccup finally looked at her. She smiled sadly at him. Hiccup opened his mouth to say something, but Saphira beat him to it.

"I mean, you just went back on, what, seven generations worth of killing dragons? You're braver than I thought."

Hiccup spluttered.

"Brave?! This was treason! More than that, it was stupid! That dragon could have killed me! I was lucky it didn't!"

"But it didn't kill you," responded Saphira calmly.

"No, it just scared the living Vanir out of me before leaving me to faint!"

"But it didn't kill you," she said again.

"No! Are you listening to me? It didn't kill…" he paused. "…Why didn't it kill me?"

Saphira shrugged. "You tell me," she said, holding out a hand to him. Hiccup suddenly realized that he was still on his knees. With Saphira's help he stood up, only to sway on his feet. He put a hand to his head and groaned.

"Are you okay?" asked Saphira.

"Just perfect," responded Hiccup.

"Well, you can't be that bad if your sarcasm's still intact. Can you walk without falling over?"

"Yeah, I think so. Just… give me a minute."

Saphira waited patiently as Hiccup recovered his bearings. He discovered that in addition to a minor headache, his ears were ringing. He was also finding it a bit difficult to focus his eyes anywhere, but overall he was ok.

"All right, I'm good," he said.

"Ready to head back?"

"Yup, let's go."

He and Saphira started walking slowly in the direction of the village. After a few minutes Hiccup's headache and the ringing is his ears lessened.

As if sensing it, Saphira chose that moment to open conversation again.

"So… what now?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" responded Hiccup, still trying to focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

"You said it yourself; you just committed treason. What are we gonna do about it?"

Hiccup stumbled. He had almost forgotten about that.

"I… we can't tell anyone," he said. "Please, Saphira. If anyone finds out, or Odin forbid if my _dad_ finds out… I'm not sure what'll happen to me."

"I'm guessing it won't be pleasant."

Hiccup glanced at her. She had spoken with a surprising amount of anger and bitterness. However, she blew past it.

"I promise I won't tell anyone, Hiccup. I'll keep your secret for as long as you need."

"Thank you," Hiccup sighed in relief.

Saphira didn't respond. After a while Hiccup glanced at her again. She was biting her bottom lip as if considering something.

"What is it?" he asked, a bit nervously.

"I was just thinking," said Saphira slowly. "What are you gonna do during the next dragon raid?"

Hiccup blinked at her in confusion.

"I mean," she continued, her words getting faster, "you said you "couldn't" kill the Night Fury. What about other dragons? Do you think you could kill them? And if not, are you going to stop sneaking out during raids? Wouldn't that make people suspicious? Hiccup, what are you going to do?"

Saphira suddenly snapped her mouth shut with an audible click. Hiccup stared at her. They had stopped walking.

"You seem more worried about this than I am," said Hiccup, half-jokingly. "But you have a point. I… I don't know what I'm going to do."

He continued walking. Saphira followed him.

Hiccup tried to imagine killing a dragon. He had done so before: imagined using an axe to cleanly chop off a Scaldron's head. Imagined himself twice as big and four times as strong, wrestling a Nadder. All while people cheered his name.

Now, however, when he tried to picture himself stabbing a sword into a Gronkle, all he could see was the Night Fury's eye. He tried to push the unwanted image away, but when he did so he was suddenly able to see the Gronkle dying – actually dying. Never in his imaginings had he actually thought about the death: the blood of the dragon spraying onto him, the last agonized roar before the light faded from its eyes…

Hiccup stopped imagining.

He couldn't do that.

What kind of person would he be if he did?

It wasn't… him.

"I can't kill dragons," he whispered aloud.

From beside him, Saphira hesitated a moment before asking again, "So what are you going to do?"

Hiccup sighed.

"I don't know."

* * *

Stoick sat by the fire in his house, turning coals over. He stared into the embers, thinking about his day but mostly about his conversation with Gobber.

He had already decided that dragon training was the best thing he could do for his son. It was the best way for him to learn how to protect himself; perhaps even the only way.

He just hoped the training itself wouldn't get Hiccup killed.

Stoick shook his head. He wouldn't – couldn't – allow himself to even consider the possibility.

'I can't lose him too,' he thought. 'He might be a nuisance, but there are worse things. He's still my son.'

At that moment the door opened. Hiccup and Saphira came inside, but Stoick kept his eyes on the fire. Hiccup glanced at Saphira then tried to sneak his way up the stairs.

"Hiccup."

The teen stopped.

"Dad. Uh..." once again he glanced at Saphira. Stoick stood up with a deep breath. "I, uh... I have to talk to you, Dad."

"I need to speak with you too, son," said Stoick. He looked at Saphira. "Could you please give us a moment of privacy?"

"Oh, yeah, of course," said the girl from the doorway. She gave Hiccup a smile before closing the door on her way out. Stoick looked back at his son.

"Well then," said the father. Both boys took a deep breath.

"I've decided-"

"I don't want to-"

"-I think it's time you learn fight dragons."

"-to fight dragons."

A pause.

"What?" asked both.

"You go first," said Stoick.

"No, you go first," insisted Hiccup.

"Alright." Stoick took a breath and let it out. "You get your wish. Dragon training. You start in the morning."

"Oh man, I should've gone first," said Hiccup in panic. "Uh, 'cause I was thinking, you know we have a surplus of dragon-fighting Vikings, but do we have enough… bread-making Vikings? Or small home repair Vikings-"

"You'll need this," said Stoick, ignoring his son's protests and handing him an axe.

"I don't want to fight dragons," persisted Hiccup, bending over from the weight of the weapon.

Stoick chuckled.

"Come on. Yes, you do," he said confidently. What was Hiccup playing at?

"Rephrased: Dad, I can't kill dragons."

Oh.

"But you will kill dragons." Stoick hoped he at least sounded convincing.

"No, I'm really very extra sure that I won't."

Stoick felt his anger rising. "It's time Hiccup."

"Can you not hear me?"

"This is serious son!" Stoick shouted.

'Does he not understand?' the chief wondered.

"When you carry this axe..." he tried to explain, straightening the weapon in the boy's arms, "you carry all of us with you. Which means you walk like us, you talk like us, you _think_ like us. No more of..." he gestured at Hiccup as a whole. "... this."

"You just gestured to all of me," said Hiccup with an eye-roll and loosening his grip on the axe.

"Deal?" asked Stoick, tired of beating around the bush.

"This conversation is feeling very one-sided," tried Hiccup one more time.

"DEAL?!" persisted the father.

Hiccup sighed.

"Deal," he said miserably.

"Good," said Stoick.

'Or at least good enough,' he thought as he grabbed the basket of supplies he would need for his campaign.

"Train hard. I'll be back. Probably."

"And I'll be here. Maybe," responded Hiccup as his father left.

Stoick found Saphira waiting outside.

"What're you still doin' here, lass?" asked the chief, though he continued walking.

"Looking out for a friend," said the girl in her strange accent. She matched Stoick's pace. "I… couldn't help but overhear your conversation."

"I see it was a mistake putting you with the twins."

"No, I would have done it anyway," responded Saphira matter-of-factly. "But that's beside the point."

"Then what _is_ the point?"

"I wanted to ask you about dragon training."

The chief stopped walking.

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

"What exactly is it?"

"It's a class where we train young Vikings to fight dragons," said Stoick, a little surprised. Even though she lost her memory, if she grew up in the Archipelago shouldn't that bit of information have stuck?

"I see," said Saphira thoughtfully. "And where could I sign up?"

"What? You hardly know us," said Stoick. "Training as a warrior means you're willing to lay down your life for Berk."

"I don't think I'll be going anywhere for a while," said Saphira. "This place is as good as my home. If you'll let me train though…"

"Yes?"

"Is there I way I can be put in the same class as Hiccup?"

There was a pause.

"Why?"

"I'm looking out for a friend."

"I see," said Stoick. "Well, I'll talk to Gobber. The twins will be in the same class as Hiccup, not that there's more than one class anyway. They'll probably show you the ropes."

He started walking again toward the docks. Saphira didn't follow him, but she did call out after him.

"Hey, chief."

Stoick turned.

"Be careful."

He blinked, and Saphira was gone. He suddenly felt uneasy. Something about the girl's parting words had been off…

* * *

"RISE AND SHINE!"

"WAKE UP AND SMELL THE YAK MILLK!"

Ruffnut and Tuffnut burst into the room Saphira was using, banging their double-pointed spears against the door frame.

Saphira groaned put a pillow over her head.

"Huh, guess she's not too excited about the FIRST DAY OF DRAGON TRAINING!" commented Ruffnut.

"Guess not. Oh well, more FUN FOR US," responded Ruffnut.

"Yeah, can't wait for all that FIRE AND DESTRUCTION!"

"All right, all right, I'm getting up," said Saphira, sitting up. "Just shut up."

"Hmm, it seems that our guest is not a morning person," commented Tuffnut. "You know what that means, sister?"

"Early morning pranks?"

"You took the words right out of my mouth."

"Don't you dare," interrupted Saphira, coming over to stand in front of the two. She glared at them. "Whatever you're planning on doing, you better _pray_ that you mess it up, or my revenge will be worse than you can imagine."

Saphira and the twins stared each other down, but it wasn't long before Saphira's composure broke. She started laughing. Ruffnut and Tuffnut looked at each other and ginned.

Tuffnut patted Saphira on the shoulder.

"Welcome to the Thorston household, my friend."

"I think you'll enjoy your stay."

Saphira smiled. "Can't wait to start."

"Speaking of starting, we're supposed to be heading over to Dragon Training right now, so…" Tuffnut reminded them.

"Shoot, you're right!" exclaimed Ruffnut, grabbing Saphira's wrist. "Let's go!"

"Hey, let me grab my stuff first!" protested the older teen as she was dragged out the door.

* * *

The other teens were already at the arena by the time Saphira, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut arrived. The gate hadn't been opened yet, so Astrid, Snoutlout, and Fishlegs were standing outside. Snoutlout kept trying to make conversation with Astrid, while she gripped her axe with white knuckles. Fishlegs was off to the side, staring at nothing and mumbling under his breath.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut almost immediately gravitated toward Snotlout, but Saphira strolled over to Fishlegs.

"Hey."

Fishlegs jumped with a small yelp.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"S-scared? I, uh, you…just…surprised me," said the boy, nervously turning his hammer over in his hands.

"Uh, ok," said Saphira. "So anyway, are you excited for training?"

"Y-yeah, I guess so. I mean, I'm more interested in the dragons themselves."

"Really?" asked Saphira with genuine interest.

"Yeah!" the boy began enthusiastically. "Did you know that each dragon species has its own unique flame? And that sometimes it's not even fire? Or that there are several dragons that can camouflage themselves?"

"That's actually really cool," said Saphira. "Where did you learn all this?"

"Oh, well there's this book-"

"Oi! You lot! Stop standin' around, we've got work to do!" interrupted Gobber, who had finally arrived. The teens paused their conversations and proceeded to form a line in front of him.

"Right. Well, I've got a few things I want to cover today so I'll make the introductions short. You all know me, and most of you know each other from the fire brigade. For anyone that doesn't know, that's Saphira." He gestured to the girl in question will his good hand. Then he did a double take.

"Erm, lass, I don't mean to call you out, but… do you have a weapon on you?"

In answer Saphira pulled several daggers from various places on her body. Gobber looked at the small knives in concern.

"Might I suggest something more… heavy duty? We have extra axes and swords-"

"I'll be fine," said Saphira with a smile. Everyone gave her a funny look this time, but she pointedly ignored them. Gobber shrugged.

"Fair enough. Well then, if you'll all follow me…" the blacksmith led them down the short corridor that led to the gate of the arena. Using his hook hand, he opened the gate with a flourish.

"Welcome to dragon training!"

"No turning back," said Astrid seriously as she and the other Vikings strode into the arena. They all looked around the inside, taking in the various scorch marks and weapons racks.

"I hope I get some serious burns!" said Tuffnut after a moment.

"I'm hoping for some mauling, like on my shoulder or lower back," responded Ruffnut.

"Yeah, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it," commented Astrid.

"Yeah, no kidding, right?" said a sarcastic voice from behind them all. "Pain. Love it."

"Oh great, who let _him_ in?" asked Tuffnut in disgust, gesturing toward Hiccup with his spear.

"Let's get started!" shouted Gobber. "The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village."

Hiccup flinched.

"Hiccup already killed a Night Fury, so does that disqualify him, or…?" Snotlout's joke was met with a few laughs and continued, quieter teasing from the twins. Saphira watched them all with an unreadable expression.

Gobber, meanwhile, threw an arm over Hiccup's shoulder. "Don't worry. You're small and you're weak. That'll make you less of a target. They'll see you as sick or insane and go after the more Viking-like teens instead." He chuckled conspiratorially and gave Hiccup a pat before pushing him in line with the others. Gobber then moved to the row of reinforced doors lining the arena wall.

"Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight," said Gobber, beginning to move down the line. As he passed each door he said the name of the dragon within. Fishlegs practically bounced with excitement.

"The Deadly Nadder."

"Speed eight. Armor sixteen," recited Fishlegs under his breath.

"The Hideous Zippleback."

"Plus eleven stealth. Times two."

"The Monstrous Nightmare."

"Firepower fifteen." Fishlegs was gradually getting louder.

"The Terrible Terror."

"Attack eight. Venom twelve!"

"CAN YOU STOP THAT?!" Gobber finally barked. Fishlegs snapped his mouth shut.

"And… the Gronkle," finished Gobber, putting his hand on the lever to the last dragon's cage.

"Jaw strength, eight," whispered Fishlegs to Hiccup. At that moment Snotlout realized what their teacher was about to do.

"Whoa, wait! Aren't you gonna teach us first?"

"I believe in learning on the job," said Gobber as he pulled the lever, releasing the Gronkle from its prison.

* * *

 **A/N:**

Thank you to everyone who favorited/followed!

Oh, and to DarkDust27: Ship what you will, but I will be sticking to canon pairings. There are... reasons behind that. *attempts to fade mysteriously into darkness* Hope you like the story anyway!

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC.


	5. Chapter 5

"Today is about survival," announced Gobber as the teenagers scrambled to get away from the Gronkle. "If you get blasted, you're dead. Quick, what's the first thing you're going to need?"

"A doctor?" suggested Hiccup.

"Plus five speed?" asked Fishlegs.

"A shield," said Astrid confidently.

"Shields. Go," confirmed Gobber.

The recruits scrambled for the shields scattered around the ring.

"Your most important piece of equipment is your shield," the blacksmith continued as Hiccup struggled to pick up his chosen piece of equipment. "If you must make a choice between a sword or a shield, take the shield." Gobber hoisted the shield up for Hiccup and pushed him into the fray.

Meanwhile, Ruff and Tuff both lunged for a shield with a skull painted on it.

"Get your hands off my shield!" said Tuff.

"There are like a million shields!" retorted Ruff.

"Take that one, it has a flower on it. Girls like flowers," said the brother. Ruffnut yanked the shield out of his hands and proceeded to him him on the head with it.

"Ooops, now this one has blood on it." Tuffnut grabbed the shield again and they continued to fight over it.

Their argument caught the Gronkle's attention and it let off its first shot. The lava blast hit the shield and knocked it out of both twins' hands, sending them spinning to the ground.

"Tuffnut, Ruffnut, you're out!" called Gobber.

"What?" said the pair, dazed and confused.

At that moment the Gronkle found a pile of rocks within the arena, and promptly swallowed them to gain more ammunition. Saphira used the distraction to make her way behind the dragon.

"Those shields are good for another thing," said Gobber, continuing his lesson. "Noise. Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim."

The teenagers in the ring began banging on their shields. They had formed a ring around the dragon, and it wasn't long before the Gronkle started shaking its head in an attempt to clear it.

"All dragons have a limited number of shots," the teacher announced. "How many does a Gronkle have?

"Five?" guessed Snotlout.

"No, six!" amended Fishlegs.

"Correct, six. That's one for each of you! Pairing the twins together, that is."

"Is this really the best way to train us?" Saphira called out suddenly. "The risk of injury seems very high."

"I really don't think my parents would—" started Fishlegs before his shield was blasted away.

"Fishlegs, out," Gobber stated. The blacksmith then noticed Hiccup taking cover behind some wooden boards.

"Hiccup, get in there!" he shouted.

Meanwhile, Astrid was in ready postition. She watched the dragon, waiting for it to either notice her or provide her with an opening. She was also trying to ignore Snotlout.

"So anyway I'm moving into my parents' basement," said the dark haired teen, oblivious to the girl's disinterest. "You should come by sometime to work out. You look like you work out—"

Astrid saw that she had gained the Gronkle's attention and promptly dove out of the way of its lava blast, leaving Snotlout to take the hit. The molten rock hit his shield and sent him flying.

"Snotlout! You're done!" called Gobber.

Astrid rolled and popped up next to Hiccup, who stood awkwardly smiling and trying to play it cool.

"So, I guess it's just you and me huh?" he said.

"No. Just you," said Astrid as she dodged again. The lava blast hit Hiccup's shield, but knocked it off his arm instead of destroying it. The shield began to roll like a coin around the arena. Hiccup chased after it.

"One shot left!" shouted Gobber helpfully as the Gronkle pursued Hiccup. However as the dragon got closer to the boy, the blacksmith grew increasingly worried. Saphira, who hadn't been hit yet, saw what was happening and began to sprint toward Hiccup.

"Hiccup!" both Saphira and Gobber yelled in panic.

Hiccup was unable to reach his shield before the Gronkle pinned him against the wall. It opened its mouth for its last shot. Hiccup closed his eyes, bracing himself for a painful end.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Gobber's prosthetic hand reached in and caught the dragon's jaw. He yanked upward, making the Gronkle miss the point-blank shot.

"And that's six!" he said, trying to hide how shaken he was by the close call. The dragon struggled against him, but Gobber held his own, wrestling the Gronkle back into its pen.

"Go back to bed, ya overgrown sausage!" he said, slamming the cage door shut.

"You'll get another chance, don't you worry," he said, addressing the panting students. "Remember... a dragon will always," he turned and pointed to Hiccup, making sure to get close into the teen's face, " _always_ … go for the kill."

Hiccup, still on the ground, looked up at the smoldering crater above him as Gobber went to check the other students, realizing that that could have been his head. His thoughts flashed back to the Night Fury.

'If dragons always go for the kill,' he thought, 'then why didn't that one?'

His thoughts were interrupted by Saphira, who jogged over with worry written all over her face.

"Hiccup! Are you ok?"

Hiccup stood with a groan. "Relatively speaking."

"Do you have some sort of death wish that I don't know about?"

"Uh…"

"Whatever, just try not to get yourself killed!" she yelled.

Hiccup looked at the older girl. She seemed uncharacteristically angry. He also noticed that she seemed distracted by something.

"Saphira? Are _you_ ok?" he asked.

"What? Oh, yeah, just… it's a bit much to take in," she said, shaking her head and avoiding his gaze. Hiccup opened his mouth to call her out on the blatant lie, but before he could Gobber addressed the group again.

"We'll meet in the Great Hall again just after sundown," he said, "but for now I'm sure your families are eagerly waiting for you to do your chores."

Everyone excluding Saphira and Hiccup groaned.

"Now, don't give me that. Would you rather fight another dragon?"

A resounding "NO!" rang through the air.

"That's what I thought," said Gobber.

"Excuse me, Gobber?" Saphira spoke up.

"What is it, lass?"

"I was just wondering; at the beginning of… class, you pointed out five of the cages and their dragons."

"Yes?"

"So what's in the sixth one?"

"Ah," said Gobber a bit awkwardly. "Well, I'm not sure I'm supposed to tell you all about that quite yet."

"Oh ho, what's that? The teacher's keeping secrets?" said Snotlout. "Now you have to tell us."

The rest of the teens gave murmurs of agreement.

Gobber thought for a moment. "Well, all I can really tell you is that there is most definitely a dragon in there," he said. "But I can't tell you what kind."

Shouts of protest rang out, especially from Fishlegs.

"Please tell us what it is!" pleaded the nerdy boy. "How dangerous is it? What are its stats?"

"What are its weaknesses?" asked Astrid.

"What she said," said Snotlout.

"How destructive is it?" asked the twins in unison.

Hiccup and Saphira stayed silent. Hiccup was as curious as the other students, but saw that Saphira seemed to have exhausted her inquisitiveness. Her fists were clenched and Hiccup saw her jaw working, as if she was grinding her teeth. He was about to ask her what was up, but Gobber began speaking again.

"I can't tell you lot anything!" he shouted. "I've probably told you too much already. Now get out of here before I let the Gronkle out again!"

The recruits slowly filed out of the arena, grumbling under their breath. Hiccup and Saphira trailed at the back of the group. Hiccup passed the crater in the wall, and was reminded again of the Night Fury. A crazy idea suddenly popped into his head.

"Hey." Saphira nudged him with her elbow. "I'm gonna go take care of something. Be right back."

He nodded and Saphira jogged over to the twins, who were discussing the destructive potential of the yet-to-be-revealed dragon.

Hiccup watched her converse with the pair for a few moments. It looked as if she was negotiating something. It wasn't very long before she came back with a triumphant look.

"What was that about?"

"Probably best you don't know the details, but let's just say I'm free for the afternoon."

"Uh huh…" said Hiccup, suddenly worried. "Is it anything life threatening?"

"No." Saphira paused. "Then again…"

"Yep, I don't want to know," said Hiccup.

Saphira grinned. "So, where are we off to?"

"Um, well, I mean, we could go back to the forge, but Gobber would probably make us do work. We could go, uh, somewhere else in the village –"

"Friend, I saw the way you were looking at that crater," interrupted Saphira. "You were thinking of the Night Fury, weren't you?" she said more quietly.

Hiccup sighed. "Yeah."

"You want to go back to the place where you found it?"

"Well, I mean—"

"Great idea, let's go."

Hiccup stared at her. "What? No, I'm pretty sure it's a terrible idea!"

"But the terrible ideas always make the best stories," said Saphira. "Also Gobber's gaining on us and I'm pretty sure we're gonna be stuck in the forge all day if we don't get going now," she added with a glance over her shoulder. Hiccup also looked behind them and sure enough found Gobber quickly limping toward them.

"Maybe you're right…" said Hiccup.

"OI! You two!" called the blacksmith.

"Last chance," said Saphira.

Hiccup hesitated just a second too long.

"You two…" repeated Gobber, panting as he caught up to them, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. "Listen, I know you probably want to go frolicking about or whatever it is you young people do in your spare time, but we've already missed half a day in the forge."

Saphira shot Hiccup a "what did I tell you" look.

"Please, Gobber," said Hiccup, "can we… not… work at the forge today? I mean we just had dragon training. Us young people; we need to unwind."

"Uh huh, nice try Hiccup," said Gobber. Then he looked at the teens' dejected faces. He sighed. "Though I suppose if you at least sharpen a few swords, I can let you go early."

"Deal," said Saphira before Hiccup even had the chance.

* * *

It was dusk before Saphira and Hiccup managed to make their way back to the crash site. They hadn't talked as much during the walk, each lost in their own thoughts. Hiccup couldn't stop replaying Gobber's words in his head.

' _A dragon always…_ always _goes for the kill.'_

At last he and Saphira stumbled upon the bola Hiccup had cut away from the Night Fury. Hiccup bent down and studied it for a moment.

"So why didn't you?" he asked under his breath.

"Hey, over here," called Saphira.

Hiccup looked up and saw her standing a few yards away by a pair of boulders. Hiccup went over to her and passed between the rocks. They opened up to a beautiful hidden grotto. There was an impossibly clear spring pool, fed by a waterfall, to one side of it, while the other side was an open clearing. Birds sang as they flew through shafts of afternoon light. However, Hiccup couldn't appreciate the beauty.

"Well this was stupid," he commented.

"Stupid to come here? I don't know," said Saphira, bending down. "What're these?" She picked up a smooth, black oval laying on the ground. Hiccup crouched down beside her and did the same.

Suddenly, a black shape flew past them both, causing them to fall backwards. The two teens looked up at the Night Fury as it tried to claw its way out of the grotto. It failed and glided unevenly back down to the bottom, not noticing Hiccup or Saphira.

They stared at it a moment, then Hiccup scrambled for his notebook. Saphira just got closer to the rock ledge, as if trying to get a better look.

Hiccup began to draw the dragon, trying to be both as accurate and as quick as possible as the Night Fury moved around. He finished the tail as it let out a lavender blast of fire in frustration.

"Why don't you just… fly away?" he wondered aloud quietly. Looking at it again, Hiccup saw that that its left tailfin was gone. He adjusted his drawing accordingly. He glanced between it and the Night Fury, sighing. He then turned his attention toward Saphira, who had been staring at the dragon the entire time. Hiccup scooted closer to her, meaning to draw her away from the edge. As he reached out to touch her shoulder his charcoal pencil accidentally fell out of his hand.

Hiccup inhaled sharply and made a grab for it, but it clattered to the rocks below. The Night Fury looked at them.

Hiccup half expected it to attack, but it simply stood there, albeit in a tense position. It flicked its green gaze between him and Saphira. Hiccup straightened and cocked his head to the side, curious. The dragon copied his movements.

Hiccup felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's go," Saphira told him quietly, still looking at the dragon. Hiccup nodded, and they slowly backed out of the grotto.

* * *

"Have I mentioned how much I hate the weather?" asked Hiccup as he and Saphira walked through the pouring rain.

"Several times on this walk alone," said Saphira in an annoyed tone.

"I mean, where did this storm even come from?" continued Hiccup. "One minute there's a charming sunset, the next the sky's as black as night and I'm getting soaked."

"It's very unfortunate," said Saphira dryly. "Can we have less talking, more getting into the warm, dry Great Hall?"

Hiccup continued to grumble as they walked toward the building. They were already soaked so there was no point in running for cover.

They passed through the large doors right into the middle of dinner. The rest of the dragon training class were already seated at a table, listening to Gobber.

"Alright. Where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?"

"I mistimed my summersault dive," answered the girl in question. "It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble."

The rest of the group rolled their eyes.

"Yeah. We noticed," said Ruffnut sarcastically.

"No, no, you were great. That was so 'Astrid'," tried Snotlout, attempting to grab Astrid's hand. She pulled away from him with a glare.

"She's right, you have to be tough on yourselves," said Gobber as Hiccup and Saphira came over. The instructor glared at them.

"Where did Saphira go wrong today?"

"She tried to save Hiccup," said Snotlout nastily.

"She stayed back, even when she had the chance to strike," said Astrid, eyeballing the older girl. Saphira met her gaze unflinchingly.

"Where did Hiccup go wrong?" asked Gobber as Hiccup and Saphira tried to find a seat.

"He showed up," said Ruffnut.

"He didn't get eaten," said Tuffnut.

The twins made room for Saphira, but moved over to exclude Hiccup, as did everyone else. He sighed, rolled his eyes, and grabbed a plate and cup before sitting at a nearby table. Saphira got up and sat next to him.

"He's never where he should be," said Astrid in answer to Gobber's question.

"Thank you, Astrid," said Gobber as he went to retrieve something from another table.

"You need to live and breathe this stuff."

He shoved everything off the table the majority of the teens were sitting at and plopped a thick book, which had Berk's symbol on its cover, down on the table.

"The dragon manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of."

At that moment there was a rumble of thunder. Gobber looked toward the ceiling.

"No attacks tonight. Study up." Gobber began to make his way to the door.

"Wait, you mean read?" asked Tuffnut as he left.

"While we're still alive?" added Ruffnut.

"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" Snotlout pointed out.

"Oh! I've read it like, seven times," said Fishlegs enthusiastically. "There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face. And there's this other one that buries itself for like a week..."

"Yeah, that sounds great," said Tuffnut, cutting him of with a gesture. The other teens were all staring at Fishlegs. "There was a chance I was going to read that..."

"...but now..." finished Ruff.

"You guys read, I'll go kill stuff," said Snotlout as he stood to leave.

"Oh and there's this other one that has these spines that look like trees..." Fishlegs continued to ramble as the rest of the teens, except Astrid, Saphira, and Hiccup, made to follow Snotlout out the door.

Hiccup stood and walked over to Astrid.

"So I guess we'll share—"

"Read it," said Astrid curtly as she pushed the book toward him and left.

Hiccup felt a hand on his shoulder as he watched her go.

"I'm gonna go," said Saphira.

"What? Why"

"Sorry, but today kinda tired me out. I'll catch up with you tomorrow and you can tell me all about it." Saphira followed Astrid out the door.

"All mine then," Hiccup commented as she left. "Wow, so okay. I'll see you—"

The door closed.

"Tomorrow," Hiccup finished with a sigh.

Hiccup waited until the few remaining people in the hall had left; he usually read aloud, and didn't need the funny stares that would bring. He also wanted a chance to dry off before studying the book.

When the hall had cleared out, he lit a couple candles and opened the book to the first page.

"Dragon classifications. Strike class. Fear class. Mystery class."

'Helpful,' he commented silently. 'Next page.'

"Thunderdrum. This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. When startled, the Thunderdrum produces a concussive sound that can kill a man at close range. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight." The picture on the page showed a Viking having his head knocked off by a Thunderdrum.

'That's pleasant,' thought Hiccup sarcastically as he moved on.

"Timberjack. This gigantic creature has razor sharp wings that can slice through full grown trees...extremely dangerous. Kill on sight." He turned the page.

"Scauldron. Sprays scalding water at its victim. Extremely dangerous—" a gust of wind suddenly blew the doors to the hall open. Hiccup jumped with a shout. Heart racing, he looked around. But nobody was there.

'Obviously,' he thought, scolding himself. 'Man, I must be tired. Maybe Saphira had the right idea.' He looked back at the book.

"Changewing. Even newly hatched dragons can spray acid. Kill on sight." He was starting to sense a pattern, and began flipping through the pages rather than reading each one in full. The pictures seemed to move in the candlelight.

"Gronkle. Zippleback. The Skrill. Bone Knapper. Whispering Death."

'Who chose these names?' he wondered. He decided to flip through some of the actual information as well.

"Burns its victims. Buries its victims. Chokes its victims. Turns its victims inside-out."

'Maybe that was a bad idea,' he thought.

"Extremely dangerous. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight. Kill on sight. Kill on sight..."

It was then that Hiccup stumbled onto the page he hadn't even known he was looking for.

"Night Fury."

The page was blank, except for the name and a few details.

"Speed unknown," read Hiccup. "Size unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself."

Hiccup's eyes slowly widened as he continued.

"Never engage this dragon. Your only chance, hide and pray it does not find you." He dug out his notebook and tossed it on the table on top of the book of dragons, the page open to his drawing of the Night Fury.

'That means I'm probably the only one who's gotten close enough for a drawing and lived,' he thought incredulously. Then something caught his eye.

Underneath the top left corner of the book of dragons was a folded slip of paper. Hiccup stared at it.

The table had been clear before he sat, and he didn't remember putting anything there.

Thunder crashed outside as he pulled the paper from under the book and opened it.

At the top of the page were two words: Deadly Shadow.

Below that was a picture of a dragon Hiccup had never seen before.

* * *

 **A/N:**

Just wanted to let my ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL FOLLOWERS/FAVORITERS know that chapter six is being beta'd as I type by the AMAZING HOPEFULHELPFUL and chapter seven is coming sometime this week as well.

Let me tell you, chapter seven is gonna be... well. Let's just say I'm excited. *evil laugh that slowly intensifies*

I own nothing except my OC.


	6. Chapter 6

There was hardly a cloud in the sky. The ocean surrounding the fleet of boats was clear in three directions. A steady wind was blowing, pushing the Viking ships along at a good pace.

Stoick couldn't appreciate any of it.

"I can almost smell them," he said half to himself, looking at his map. "They're close. Steady," he called out to his Vikings.

He looked up from the map at the huge fog bank that rose up from the water like a wall. The dense mist had kept him and all other Vikings from reaching the dragon's island. There were those that doubted that the island even existed, but Stoick was sure of it.

He had sacrificed too much for anything else.

He still sometimes heard his wife's cries at night, and during the day he usually had his son to remind him of his failures as a husband and parent. He wanted – no, needed – to eradicate the dragons. Only then would he avenge his wife. Only then could he be a better father for Hiccup.

'Only when he's safe,' he told himself. 'I have to protect him.'

' _Because you didn't protect them,'_ said a small voice in the back of his head.

He immediately blocked it out. He couldn't afford to be distracted, not today. This was his last chance to at least find the island before winter set in.

'I _will_ kill them all,' he promised.

"Take us in," he told the helmsman before making his way to the bow of the ship.

"Hard to port..." said a Viking to the nearest ship, "for Helheim's gate."

One by one the ships turned into the fog. For a few moments nothing happened.

Suddenly there was a flash of light.

They were under attack.

* * *

"You know, I just happened to notice the book had nothing on Night Furies," said Hiccup, holding his axe and shield. "Is there another book? Or a sequel? Maybe a little Night Fury pamphlet? Also, what's a Deadly Shadow?"

Out of nowhere a bright, hot blast of fire destroyed the head of his, or rather his father's, axe.

"Whoa!" cried Hiccup, flinching away from the newest crater in the wall.

"Focus Hiccup!" yelled Gobber from outside the ring. "You're not even trying."

As he dodged the Deadly Nadder within the maze Gobber had set up, Hiccup thought he was definitely trying very hard to stay alive.

"Today is all about attack!" called the blacksmith as the Nadder searched for a target from where it was perched above the labyrinth. "Nadders are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter!"

The dragon found Fishlegs and proceeded to shoot spines from its tail directly at the nerdy teen. He raised his shield and ran.

"I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods!" he called out to the teacher. Gobber ignored him.

Saphira was near Hiccup. She had yet to even draw a dagger. Seeing the dragon down a corridor, she snuck past it to be closer to Hiccup, who was trying to work his way back toward Gobber.

"Look for its blind spot," said the blacksmith. The Nadder, meanwhile, was approaching Ruff and Tuff. "Every dragon has one. Find it, hide in it, and strike."

The dragon was now directly in front of the twins, but couldn't seem to see them. The brother and sister remained in the blind spot, tightly squished together, even as the dragon moved. This forced Ruffnut to smell her brother.

"Ugh, do you ever bathe?" she whispered.

"If you don't like it, then just get your own blind spot," retorted the brother.

"How about I give you one!" yelled Ruff, literally butting heads with him. The dragon interrupted them with a squawk. The twins looked back at it just in time to dodge a blast.

"Blind spot? Yes. Deaf spot? Not so much," commented Gobber with a chuckle.

"Hey, so how would one sneak up on a Night Fury? Or a Deadly Shadow?" asked Hiccup as he ran past the instructor.

"None one's ever met one and lived to tell the tale," said Gobber curtly, "and I've never heard of a Deadly Shadow. Now get in there!"

"Ok, ok," said Hiccup as backed up into the maze, "but hypothetically..."

Astrid suddenly caught his attention with a loud whisper. Snotlout and Saphira were crouching next to her.

"Hiccup! Get down!" Astrid turned back to the Nadder around the corner. She took a steadying breath before she rolled past it, right in its blind spot. Snotlout and Saphira followed suit. Hiccup tried, but his shield proved to be too heavy for the maneuver. He was pulled down, and the dragon noticed. Hiccup scrambled to get up and ran, the Nadder snapping at his heels. At the next corner the dragon found Snotlout, Saphira, and Astrid. The blond lifted her axe to throw it, but Snotlout pushed her away before she had the chance.

"Hey!"

"Don't worry babe, I'll take care of this." Snotlout threw his hammer, only for it to bounce harmlessly off a wall. The Nadder watched it fall to the ground, then squawked in a way that could only be described as laughter. Astrid and Saphira both glared at Snotlout. There was a pause before Snotlout attempted to defend himself.

"The sun was in my eyes, Astrid." The dragon let off another blast, causing Snotlout, Astrid, and Saphira to flee. "What do you want me to do, block out the sun?" In its pursuit, the dragon began to knock down the walls of the maze. They fell like dominoes. "I could do that, but I don't have time right now!" he continued. "And Saphira doesn't even have a weapon drawn, so she wasn't gonna do anything…"

Everyone but Astrid rushed past Hiccup, who was back over by Gobber asking questions.

"Has anyone seen one, ever?"

"Hiccup!" warned Gobber, gesturing with his hook at the collapsing walls of the maze. Hiccup turned around, only to see Astrid falling toward him after leaping from the top of a wall.

"Hiccup!" she called out even as she landed on top of him, getting her axe lodged in his shield in the process.

"Oooh! Love on the battlefield!" taunted Tuffnut from the side.

"She could do better," commented Ruffnut.

"Are you kidding me? It's the middle of training!" exclaimed Saphira. "Dangerous, _deadly_ training!" She added, very loudly. Gobber ignored her.

Astrid struggled to untangle herself from Hiccup.

"Just... let me... why don't you..." tried Hiccup as she fought to stand up. Once she did, she saw the Nadder coming toward them She grabbed her axe that was still lodged in Hiccup's shield, attempting to pull it loose. Giving up, she yanked the whole mess free and smashed it, shield and all, into the Nadder's face just as it reached them. It staggered from the blow.

'Well done, Astrid," said Gobber as he went to put the dragon back in its cage.

Astrid, panting, turned angrily toward Hiccup.

"Is this some kind of a joke to you?" she angrily asked Hiccup's cowering form on the ground. "Our parents' war is about to become ours," she continued as Hiccup looked up. "Figure out which side you're on."

Hiccup froze, but Astrid didn't notice. She stomped away, presumably to cool off. Hiccup took deep, shaky breaths as he stood up, looking after her. The word 'traitor' echoed through his mind.

'What side _am_ I on, if I can't kill dragons?' he wondered as Saphira walked up to him.

"Hey, you ok?" she asked, noticing his troubled expression.

"Uh, yeah," said Hiccup, distracted as he watched Astrid head toward Gobber. The other recruits followed her lead.

Suddenly, he knew what he had to do.

"Hey Saphira, can you do me a favor?"

"What?"

"After we're done here, can you cover for me at the smithy?"

"What? Why?" the girl asked in surprise. Then her eyes widened. "Oh." She looked off to the side for a moment, considering. After a moment she sighed. "Yeah, sure. Just… try not to get hurt. He's still a dragon." She looked back at him. "I'll meet you as soon as I can."

She started walking toward the rest of the group.

"Thanks Saphira," said Hiccup, following her.

"Yeah, no problem."

* * *

Hiccup knew he was an idiot.

Oh sure, he was plenty smart when it came to building things or on-the-fly thinking, but common sense?

Odin had left him lacking in that department.

At least, that was what Hiccup assumed as he made his way back to the grotto, shield in one hand and a fish in the other.

He knew he was an idiot for going back. For all he knew, the Night Fury had climbed its way over the steep walls of the grotto. Not to mention that if the dragon _was_ there…

Actually, he didn't know what would happen if the dragon was there.

That was why he was going.

He needed to make sure that the thing's behavior the day before hadn't been a fluke.

'And anyway, if it does attack, I've got a shield,' Hiccup assured himself. It did nothing to quell his nervousness. He sighed.

'I really am an idiot,' he thought as he reached the grotto. He found a way down into it and, taking a deep breath, raised his shield and cautiously moved forward. Peering over the top of the shield, he searched for any movement. Seeing none, he raised the fish and tossed it into the clearing, immediately ducking behind the shield after he did so.

Nothing happened.

Peeking above the shield, Hiccup moved forward again – only for the shield to become stuck in the narrow opening between two rock walls. Hiccup attempted to dislodge it, but quickly gave up and ducked underneath it, continuing into the clearing.

The phrase "curiosity killed the cat" came to mind, but he shut it out, his gaze searching the clearing for any sign of the dragon.

He picked up the fish and walked forward, exposing himself even more. Every part of him was screaming that this was a bad idea, even without noticing the dragon on the nearby rock formation, but Hiccup had to know.

He had to know if yesterday had just been luck. He wanted to know if his being a traitor was in any way justified.

He also wanted to know _why_ the dragon had spared him. No other dragon had ever shown mercy like that.

Suddenly he gasped. He had finally noticed the big, cat-like dragon as it moved from its rock to the ground in front of Hiccup. Its back was arched, and it kept glancing between Hiccup and the fish in his hand.

Hiccup felt his heartbeat pick up, and suddenly wished he still had his shield. He gulped and offered the fish to the dragon.

The movement revealed the dagger at his side.

The Night Fury saw it almost immediately and hissed. Hiccup pulled back his vest to reveal it in full. He looked between it and the dragon.

'Well, it's not like it would be much use anyway,' he said to himself. Slowly, he placed his hand on the hilt of the dagger.

The dragon growled harshly in warning. Hiccup jerked his hand away from the knife and took a step back before trying again.

This time he grasped the edge of the hilt with his thumb and forefinger and dropped his only remaining defense a couple feet to his right.

Still not satisfied, the dragon tossed his head to indicate that it should be farther away. Hiccup flipped the dagger onto his boot with his foot and kicked it into the pool, then braced for whatever the dragon would do next.

To Hiccup's bewilderment it sat up, eyes wide and innocent, and flicked an ear flap. It quite honestly looked to him like a pet waiting to play.

Hope flared in Hiccup's chest, and he offered the fish again.

The dragon again became cautious, but slowly approached the fish. Hiccup watched in slight fascination as it neared the free meal.

"Toothless," he observed aloud when the dragon opened its mouth. "Huh. I could've sworn you had-" the Night Fury's teeth literally popped out of its gums and grabbed the fish.

"-teeth," finished Hiccup meekly as the dragon quickly devoured the fish and licked his lips with a forked tongue. It then moved toward Hiccup, abandoning all the caution it had displayed before. Hiccup fell down and backed his way up against a rock.

"Uh, no," he said, getting increasingly nervous. Did it want…? "No, I don't have any more!" he whispered loudly as the dragon got close to his face.

A moment passed, then its eyes rolled halfway into its head and it began to make a strange, guttural noise. All of a sudden, half of the fish was in Hiccup's lap.

"Ugh." Hiccup recoiled in disgust, even as relief swept over him.

The dragon sat back on its haunches and stared at Hiccup. Hiccup stared back, glancing away occasionally, not knowing what to do.

'What does it want from me!?'

The Night Fury looked at the fish in the human's lap, then back at Hiccup's face.

Hiccup quickly looked down at the fish and then at the dragon, suddenly realizing what the dragon wanted him to do.

He sighed.

'Fine,' he thought. 'I guess I want to stay on its good side.'

Hiccup slowly lifted the tail end of the fish to his mouth, hesitated, looked at the dragon, then took a bite.

The taste was repulsive, but Hiccup managed to keep it in his mouth and smile at the dragon. The dragon cocked his head.

"Mmm hmm!" mumbled Hiccup, holding up the fish in gesture. The dragon simply looked at him and gulped.

Hiccup sagged in incredulity. Nevertheless he forced himself to swallow the raw fish, almost throwing up in the process. He shuddered in disgust when it was over.

The dragon licked its lips in question.

Hiccup gave a less than sincere smile.

Not picking up on the sarcasm, the Night Fury looked curiously at the shape Hiccup's mouth was making. It then tried to copy it, teeth retracted. Hiccup watched in fascination for a moment.

'So, not gonna kill me then,' he thought. 'So what if I…" He slowly got up and reached a hand toward the dragon as if to touch it.

The dragon took one look and popped its teeth out with a growl, before shakily flying a short distance away.

It shook its head as it burned a section of the ground and laid down. Hiccup followed him. Sensing his motion, the dragon turned its head and saw Hiccup sitting crossed legged a few yards away. Hiccup raised his hand in a wave.

The Night Fury narrowed its eyes in annoyance and turned its whole body away, blocking Hiccup's view of its face with its tail flap for good measure.

Hiccup scooted closer, no longer afraid. He reached out…

The dragon lifted its tail and looked at him with wide eyes.

Startled, Hiccup stood and awkwardly walked away. The Night Fury went in the other direction.

A while later, Hiccup was still in the clearing. He hadn't felt like going back to the village – or rather, he hadn't felt like working, even if Saphira was there. The sun had begun to set, casting long shadows in the grotto. The dragon had been sleeping on a nearby tree branch, hung upside down by its tail. Hiccup was drawing in the sand to amuse himself. He was drawing the dragon's head in impressive detail when he felt the creature in question come up behind him. He tensed, but continued drawing. The Night Fury followed his movements, fascinated. Soon the dragon shambled off on two legs. Hiccup looked behind him in curiosity, and to his surprise saw the dragon tearing a large branch off a tree.

Hiccup could only stare as the Night Fury dragged the branch to the area by Hiccup and started drawing nonsensical patterns in the sand, essentially copying Hiccup. It once looked toward the human, who smiled, and added a dot before continuing to draw lines. As it finished Hiccup stood up.

The Night Fury sat on the side looking pleased with itself. Hiccup gazed around him at the swirling lines.

'I guess for a dragon that's pretty impressive,' he thought as he took a step forward, directly on top of a line.

The Night Fury immediately hissed. Hiccup flinched and took his foot back. The dragon relaxed. Intrigued, Hiccup put his foot back down. Again the dragon hissed. He lifted it, and the dragon cooed. He repeated the process once more before stepping over the line. The dragon looked pleased with him. Hiccup smiled.

He made his way through the maze of lines, focusing so much on where _not_ to step that he didn't realize where he was going.

Then he felt a hot breath on the back of his head. Hiccup froze for a second before turning around.

He was closer to the dragon than he had yet been that day.

Without really thinking about it, Hiccup tried once again to reach out to the Night Fury. He got closer, but the dragon still shied away with a low growl. Hiccup pulled his hand back and looked at him. The dragon looked back, and once again Hiccup saw himself reflected in the creature before him.

In that moment Hiccup decided he trusted the Night Fury.

Now he just had to show it.

Hiccup closed his eyes and turned his head away. Then he stretched his hand out one more time, leaving himself completely vulnerable.

The Night Fury looked at the hand.

After a moment's hesitation, he pressed his forehead to it.

Hiccup felt the scales under his fingers. He tensed, but when he turned back to the dragon his jaw dropped in amazement.

A moment passed before the dragon pulled his head back, snorted, and went on his way.

'Just touched a dragon,' thought Hiccup. He grinned. ' _I just touched a dragon._ ' The shock and wonder held him captive for a moment, but then his smile fell. 'I guess I really am a traitor.'

A pit settled in his stomach. He needed to process this, needed to figure out what he was going to do.

He left the grotto, casting one last glance behind him. Almost as soon as he ducked under the shield however, he was practically run over by Saphira.

"What are you doing here?!" they both exclaimed once they had regained their senses.

"It's almost sundown!" said Saphira before Hiccup could say anything. "I came to make sure you were _alive_ for the bonfire tonight!"

"I was just about to head back!" he retorted. "I just got a little… preoccupied."

"Preoccupied?" asked Saphira. "What do you mean, "preoccupied"?"

Hiccup sighed. "I'll tell you on the way back. Let's go."

* * *

 **A/N:**

I sincerely apologize for my lateness. Long story short, there were communication problems and then school decided to screw over the seniors with work and then one day of procrastination turned into a week and then... well you get the picture. (I may also have become addicted to the anime Fairy Tail *cough cough*) BUT I'm here now. Feel free to review with constructive criticism!

I own nothing except my OC.


	7. Chapter 7

"What are you doing here?!" both Hiccup and Saphira exclaimed.

"It's almost sundown!" cried Saphira before Hiccup could say anything. "I came to make sure you were _alive_ for the bonfire tonight!"

"I was just about to head back!" he retorted. "I just got a little… preoccupied."

"Preoccupied?" asked Saphira, suddenly interested. "What do you mean, 'preoccupied'?"

Hiccup sighed. "I'll tell you on the way back. Let's go."

Saphira stood and helped Hiccup up. "Well, we've got to hurry, so you better make it quick."

They started walking toward the village. Hiccup took a deep breath.

"Okay, so… um…" He didn't know where to start. "I guess… I guess the short version is that I made friends with a dragon. So, um, I'm a full-blown traitor now." He sighed.

"Thor help me," he muttered under his breath.

There was quiet pause. Saphira had stopped walking.

Hiccup suddenly felt dread rising up in him. Before, when she had found out he hadn't killed the dragon, she had seemed okay with everything. Now, though…

'I just declared myself a traitor to Berk – to Viking-kind!' he thought frantically, not daring to look at Saphira. 'What if I misjudged the strength of our friendship? What if she rats me out? What if I just got myself exiled? What if…'

He suddenly heard a sound from behind him.

'Is she…?' He turned toward Saphira to confirm what he was hearing.

"Why are you laughing?" he asked

Saphira only chuckled harder at his question. Hiccup stared as she did a double fist pump.

"Whoo!" she cheered. "Yes! Oh praise Thor!"

"Saphira?"

The girl was too happy to hear him.

"Saphira!"

She looked at Hiccup when he shouted. Her smile faded when she saw the look on his face. Hiccup was confused and slightly scared.

"What are you doing? I thought… Aren't you… This isn't something people cheer about," he said.

"Uh, well, I thought you might have, uh…" Saphira fumbled.

Something clicked in Hiccup's brain.

"In fact, ever since you came here you've acted nothing like a Viking. And I know that sounds ironic coming from me, but I at least tried to be like everyone else. You… something doesn't add up."

"Hiccup—"

"You've kept every encounter with the Night Fury a secret, even though you had no real reason to. In fact, you had every reason _not_ to! You're just as much of a traitor as me!" He looked at her, both wary and confused. "Why?"

"I… um…"

"Saphira," Hiccup prodded. "What are you hiding?"

The girl could practically see the gears in his head turning. Suddenly his eyes narrowed.

"But you… you're supposed to have amnesia. You literally _can't_ be hiding something unless…"

Hiccup's mind began to race. His eyes widened and his heart started pounding.

"Wait wait wait wait wait. This doesn't make any sense. The only way this works is if…"

He waited for Saphira to stop him.

She didn't.

"You don't actually have amnesia, do you?" he whispered.

Dead silence.

Saphira ran a hand through her red-brown hair.

"… Damn," she said under her breath. "You really are smart, you know that?"

Hiccup felt the world spinning around him. He put a hand against a nearby tree for support. This, combined with everything else that had happened that day, was almost too much.

"What… How… WHY?!" he exclaimed.

Saphira took a deep breath.

"Sit down," she said as she herself sat cross-legged on the ground. Hiccup sagged against the tree he was using to support himself and slid down, taking a seat at its base. He also took a breath to clear away the dizziness he was feeling.

"All right," said Saphira. "What's your first question?"

Hiccup paused, trying to get his thoughts in order. "Who are you?" he asked.

Saphira smirked a little. "Can you be more specific?"

"Are you an enemy?" he questioned.

"No." Saphira said seriously. She looked Hiccup dead in the eye. "I swear on my life, Hiccup, I would never do anything to harm you or anyone else on Berk."

Hiccup swallowed. "Ok."

He supposed that if she was going to do anything evil she would have done it by now anyway.

"Next question," prompted the girl.

"What's your real name?" asked Hiccup. "We only call you Saphira because I suggested it."

"Ah…" the girl rubbed the back of her head. "You can just call me Saphira for now. I don't want my real name slipping out on accident after this. It's safer that way."

"Well… ok," Hiccup agreed reluctantly. He supposed that made sense, even if it made him feel uncomfortable.

"Any other questions?" asked the girl.

"Why did you pretend to have amnesia?"

Saphira sighed.

"That's… a bit complicated. But I'll try my best." She looked off to the side, pausing to collect her thoughts.

"Well, you were right when you said I act nothing like a Viking. That's because I'm not one," she started. "My… my family and I are from a place I don't think you even have on your maps. That's why I have an accent. We've been traveling around and beyond the Archipelago for as long as I can remember."

She looked back at Hiccup.

"My parents died a few years ago; or at least my mother did. I didn't know my dad. Anyway. Where we come from, dragons are respected creatures. When we first came to this area we were shocked to learn about the war between Vikings and dragons. We decided to try to start sympathy groups for dragons on each island we landed on."

Hiccup started. "There are places where humans and dragons don't fight?"

"Yup."

"How does that work?"

"… They don't fight. Why is that such a foreign concept to you guys?"

There was a beat.

"Ok," said Hiccup. "So you've just been going island to island by yourself for the last few years?"

"Well, I've been travelling with my sister—" Saphira started explaining.

"You have a sister?" Hiccup interrupted her.

"Yes. I was sailing with her when we got caught by the storm, the night before you found me."

"Where is she now?"

"I don't know. I really did get hit with lightning that night, so the details are a bit of a blur. My best guess is that I got blown into the water and the storm ended up separating us. She might come looking for me eventually, but I just don't know."

She looked away.

"I'm sorry," said Hiccup quietly.

Saphira took a deep breath and turned back to face him.

"No, that's all right. You deserve some answers."

"Speaking of, you still haven't told me why you lied," Hiccup said pointedly.

"Right, well. Think of how Stoick would react to a complete stranger who was vehemently supportive of dragons. I'd be thrown off the island in a heartbeat, not even getting the chance to change things. I had to lie in order to stay."

"What? But you were hurt! I'm sure Dad would've—"

"You might be sure, but I wasn't- and I'm still not," said Saphira bluntly. "I've seen people do much worse over much less. I wasn't going to take any chances."

Hiccup was taken aback. For some reason, Saphira's sudden deviation from her usual 'go with the flow' attitude made his hair stand on end.

He was going to need time to process everything.

Saphira sighed. "I can see you need time to think," she said as she got to her feet.

"You could say that," responded Hiccup as he stood.

"Right. Well, whatever you decided to tell everyone else, know that I will always consider you a friend." She gave him a small smile.

Hiccup looked away and remained silent.

Saphira nodded dejectedly. "Ok." She looked at the sky. "We should get going. The bonfire will be starting soon."

"Right," said Hiccup quietly.

They walked back to the village in silence as the shadows grew around them.

* * *

Hiccup and Saphira sat on opposite sides of the bonfire as Gobber told war stories. Hiccup wasn't paying attention to what anyone else was doing; he was too busy thinking. He hadn't even touched his roasted fish.

He was going over Saphira's confession in his mind.

'I understand where she's coming from about keeping secrets,' he thought. 'I'm essentially doing the same thing. At the same time, though, it's almost like she's a different person. I don't know if I can trust her the way I did. Then there's that whole dragon thing. She's says she comes from a place where dragons and humans don't fight. Where befriending a dragon isn't traitorous.'

It was hard for him to imagine – at least until he thought back to the grotto. He sighed.

'What do I do?'

Hiccup was tired of thinking. He decided to tune back in to Gobber's story, though he still didn't look up.

"...and with one twist, he took my hand and swallowed it whole," the blacksmith said dramatically. "And I saw the look on his face: I was delicious. He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg."

Hiccup had heard the story before, but only now did he think about how jarring it must have been to lose both an arm and a leg within a month – and people were losing limbs all the time on Berk.

'Why aren't we trying to make peace with the dragons again?' he wondered.

"Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon?" asked Fishlegs. "Like if your mind was still in control of it you could have killed the dragon from the inside by crushing his heart or something."

Fishlegs received many surprised stares.

"I swear I'm so angry right now," growled Snotlout. "I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot," he vowed, gesturing toward Gobber. "I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight, with my face."

"Un-unh," Gobber disagreed through a mouthful of chicken. "It's the wings and the tails you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon."

Hiccup's eyes widened as he gazed at the floor. If he knew one thing out of the storm of thoughts in his head, it was that he did not want the Night Fury to die.

'With half of his tail gone, though…'

He began thinking about something else.

Gobber stood and stretched.

"Alright," he said with a yawn. "I'm off to bed. You should be too. Tomorrow we get into the big boys." Everyone except Hiccup sat up and began listening excitedly. "Slowly but surely making way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. But who'll win the honor of killing it?"

Hiccup cast a quick glance at Saphira. She had a grin on her face like the rest, but then she caught Hiccup gaze. Only now did he recognize the hollowness behind the smile.

He decided he needed some time alone. Saphira was the only one to see him go.

"It's gonna be me," Tuffnut confidently said with a wink in reply to Gobber's rhetorical question. "It's my destiny. See?"

Fishlegs gasped. "Your mom let you get a tattoo?"

It was then that Astrid noticed that Hiccup had gone. She got up and looked down the stairs leading up to the bonfire, only catching a glimpse of his retreating silhouette. Deciding it wasn't worth following him, she sat back down.

"It's not a tattoo," Tuff said defensively towards Fishlegs. "It's a birthmark."

"Okay, I've been stuck with you since birth, and that was never there before," said Ruffnut matter-of-factly.

"Yes it was," insisted the male twin. "You've just never seen me from the left side until now."

"Hey Saphira," whispered Astrid.

"Yeah?" the older girl responded quietly.

"Do you know what's up with Hiccup?"

Saphira tensed, though her voice didn't betray it.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, usually in conversations like this he'd try to jump in with a crazy idea or something," said Astrid tactlessly. "But he's been quiet all evening, and now he's gone without a word."

"Why do you care?" asked Saphira curiously. "Isn't him being less involved better for you?"

Astrid shrugged. "Yeah, but at least when he's involved he's predictable: it's easier to tell what he's up to. When he's silent, he's like a loose cannon – you never know what he's gonna do."

"I see," said Saphira quietly. "You know, he's not so bad once you get to know him."

Astrid sighed. "Look, I know you're his friend, and I'm sure he's a good guy," she said sincerely, "but until this war is over that's not worth anything. We need to be focused on defeating the enemy, not babysitting the people too weak to fight."

Saphira turned away. There was a short silence.

"Can I ask you a personal question?" asked Saphira.

"Depends on what it is," responded Astrid.

"What are you fighting for?"

Astrid paused. "I'm fighting to protect the people of Berk," she said. "That's the point—"

"No, yeah, I get that," interrupted Saphira. "I'm asking what motivates you personally."

Astrid gripped the bench she was sitting on. "You really want to know?"

"Yes."

"I'm fighting to restore my family's honor."

Saphira blinked in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"My Uncle Finn died fighting a dragon," said Astrid. "A dragon no one has seen since. Apparently it was so terrifying, Uncle Finn froze with fear, allowing the dragon to kill him."

The blond stared into the slowly dying fire.

"My family has never been able to live that down. I fight because I don't want anyone else to live in that fear, sure, but also so that I can prove that the Hoffersons aren't a pack of cowards."

The girls listened to the fire crackle as the other teens left the bonfire one by one.

"There are less deadly ways to prove your bravery, you know," said Saphira after a moment.

"But this is the way people will notice," pointed out Astrid as she stood. "I'll see you tomorrow, Saphira," she said as she followed everyone else back down to the village.

"See ya."

* * *

Hiccup knew what he had to do; or rather, he knew what he couldn't let happen.

He also knew that what he did would have to be done alone.

He needed more time before he was ready to talk to Saphira, or whatever her real name was. It was all just… too much at the moment.

He needed a distraction.

So, Hiccup got to work.

He opened his journal to the drawing of the Night Fury, first filling in the missing tailfin to get a visual. Then he moved to a bigger piece of parchment to draw it in more detail.

He quickly realized that he would have to take some more precise measurements.

Nevertheless, he did what he could from memory, as well as came up with a working design for the prosthetic.

'Looks doable,' he supposed, studying his design. 'It's going to take some time and stolen materials though,' he thought with regret.

'I hope Gobber will forgive me for that, at least.'

* * *

 **A/N:**

Feel free to review with constructive criticism! Or feel free to just plain review about whatever; just please be respectful.

What's that? You wanted me to say something about the info-bomb at the beginning of the chapter?

Nope. : )

I own nothing except my OC.


	8. Chapter 8

Hiccup woke up early, despite his long night in the smithy, feeling strangely awake and alert.

'I guess it's just as well,' he thought as he got out of bed. 'I've got a lot to do today.'

After a quick breakfast, he decided to take a walk.

'It feels like forever since I've done this,' he noted as he enjoyed the crisp silence of dawn. He made his way through the village, taking in the familiar sights. Eventually, he found himself at the docks.

He stopped. 'The last time I took a walk was when I found Saphira,' he realized. He sighed.

"What am I going to do?" he quietly asked the ocean.

The waves lapped against the wood of the pier.

Hiccup lowered his head and began walking through the village again, deep in thought.

'Should I tell someone about her?' he asked himself. 'Probably. I mean, she lied about who she was. Doesn't that make her untrustworthy? Then again, she only lied because she was scared of what might happen if she told the truth.'

He sighed again.

'Honestly, who am I to judge? I befriended a dragon, and I'm scared to even _think_ about what would happen if anyone found out. Does that make me untrustworthy?'

"Hiccup!"

The boy turned to see Gobber hobbling toward him.

"I see you're taking morning walks again," commented the blacksmith as he drew near.

"Uh, yeah," said Hiccup, shifting uncomfortably. 'Is it too much to ask for some alone time?' he thought. "Um…did you need something?" he asked Gobber.

"Ah, yes! I want you to work at the smithy today; no wandering off who knows where with Saphira. You both need to keep up with your blacksmith training."

Hiccup stiffened. "Then… is Saphira going to work today, too?"

"Yes, if I can catch her after dragon training."

"Great," said Hiccup, barely keeping the sarcasm out of his voice. He wasn't sure he was ready to be in close quarters with Saphira yet.

 _You could tell Gobber about her right now,_ a little voice in the back of his mind suddenly pointed out. _That would take care of this dilemma right here. You would probably never have to see Saphira again, if her fears have any substance. You could let the adults handle it._

For a brief moment, Hiccup considered it. If he told Gobber that Saphira had been lying, the blacksmith would begin to ask many of the same questions Hiccup had. Assuming Hiccup answered them, Gobber would then learn of Saphira's true alliance.

'And she thinks she'll get thrown off the island because of it,' mused Hiccup. 'Would that actually happen? Would that happen to _me_? Would Saphira rat me out if I told someone about her?'

"…Hiccup?"

The boy looked up to see Gobber looking at him expectantly.

"Er, sorry. What did you say?"

"Nevermind; just don't dawdle after dragon training. Speaking of, I should go get the arena set up."

"Sure Gobber."

The blacksmith looked at Hiccup carefully. "Are you all right, lad? You look like you've got something on your mind."

"…No," said Hiccup. "I'm fine."

"If you say so," mumbled Gobber as he hobbled off.

'I _really_ hope I'm not digging my own grave deeper,' thought Hiccup as he watched his mentor go.

* * *

"Today is about defense," announced Gobber to the class of recruits. They were all gathered in the arena, which at that moment looked more like a junkyard. Various pieces of wood were piled around the arena, everything from shields to carts.

"Defense?" scoffed Snotlout. "What kind of coward would hide when they can just stab whatever the enemy is?"

Astrid gripped her axe a little tighter. "It's not about hiding," she said tersely. "It's about strategy."

"She's right," said Gobber. "You of course need to know how to hold your own in combat, but a good defense can help you live to fight another day, or even another minute when it counts."

Snotlout rolled his eyes, but kept his mouth shut.

"So… what exactly is the wood for?" asked Tuffnut.

"Are we gonna use it for a bonfire or something?" followed Ruffnut excitedly.

"Oh, oh!" shouted Fishlegs. "Are we going to build our own fortresses? Are there any design limitations?"

"Maybe we would find out if we _stopped talking_ ," said Saphira in an irritated voice. Something in her tone caused everyone to look at her.

"…What?" asked the girl defensively.

Hiccup cleared his throat. "Uh, you were saying, Gobber?"

"Right," said Gobber loudly, causing everyone to turn back to him. "Well Fishlegs, you weren't far off. You'll all have about two minutes to create any kind of defense out of anything you find in the arena. Last one standing wins!"

"Wait, wins what?" asked Snotlout.

"Time has started!" yelled Gobber. The teens scattered, each grabbing a shield before anything else.

Hiccup made a beeline for the biggest wooden object he could find: a yak cart. With a bit of difficulty he tilted it so the flat side was facing the dragon cage. He then began fortifying his exposed flanks, essentially creating a three-sided wall with medium-sized pieces of wood.

Astrid found several boxes and planks about half her height and began arranging them into lines far from the dragon cage, creating a barrier of multiple short walls between her and the dragon. She crouched behind her barriers with her axe at the ready.

Fishlegs made something of a mix between Hiccup and Astrid's designs; he too set up multiple barriers in front of him, but also created a low three-sided wall around himself, clutching his hammer and his shield.

Saphira placed herself near Hiccup. She simply grabbed enough boxes to set up a curved wall only a bit shorter than her.

Snotlout secured a total of three shields and a box, decided that was enough, and crouched down with his spear at the ready. He glanced over at Astrid occasionally, making sure to copy her stance.

The twins combined whatever wood was left into a pile and were attempting to light it on fire when Gobber opened the Gronkle's cage.

Much like the first day, the dragon burst out of its confinement and buzzed around the arena for a few moments before focusing. It first gathered rocks for ammunition, then zeroed in on the rather exposed Snotlout.

The boy gripped his spear and one of his shields, then glanced at Astrid to make sure she was watching. The dragon took advantage of the distraction and fired a lava shot at the boy, which he barely dodged. However, while the blast missed _him_ , it directly hit his meager defense.

"Snotlout! You're out!" called Gobber from outside the ring.

"What?!" exclaimed Snotlout, turning toward the teacher. "But I can still fight!"

"Your defense was destroyed, so you lost," said Gobber bluntly. "Behind you," he suddenly warned as the Gronkle buzzed up behind Snotlout. Startled, the boy gave a shout and ran for Astrid's cover. The dragon might have followed him, if it had not been distracted by the shouts of the twins.

"I _told_ you it wouldn't work!" said Ruff.

"Hey, it was your idea!" retorted Tuff.

"Now what are we going to do since the fire failed?" asked the sister.

The brother glanced at a movement behind the girl. "Uh, maybe run?"

Ruff turned to see the Gronkle rapidly buzzing toward them. The twins leapt out of the way as the dragon crashed into their woodpile at high speed. They stumbled their way behind Saphira's wall even as Gobber declared them losers.

"'Sup, Saph?" asked Tuffnut as he and his sister crouched down next to her.

"'Saph'?" questioned Saphira.

"Yeah, Saph," confirmed Ruffnut. "Haven't you ever heard of a nickname?"

Saphira opened her mouth to respond, but at that moment her wall was blown apart by a fire blast. She and the twins were thrown backwards. Faintly, they heard Gobber announce another failure.

Unable to see clearly through the smoke and dust, the Gronkle turned its attention to the three remaining defenses. Curious to see what it would do, Fishlegs lifted his head to see over his wall. The dragon caught sight of the movement and flew right over the boy's carefully constructed walls, prepping a lava shot as it approached his main barrier.

Fishlegs whimpered as he clutched his shield, too terrified to move. Nearby, the other students lifted their heads or peeked around corners, concerned about the large boy's safety. Gobber straightened and made to intervene, but just as the dragon was about to fire, a shout came from the other side of the arena. It distracted the Gronkle just enough that Fishlegs wasn't hit directly. However, his main defense was destroyed, and he was pushed back by the blast.

The dragon turned toward the direction of the shout as Fishlegs ran for Astrid's walls.

Saphira gulped.

The twins were looking at her as if she were crazy. Saphira glanced at them.

"Oh don't give me that look," she scoffed.

The twins glanced at each other, shrugged, then started running toward Hiccup's shelter. Saphira hesitated for half a second before following them.

The dragon watched them move behind the large wall, seemingly contemplating how best to attack it. Hiccup, the twins, and Saphira watched it through gaps in the wood.

"Will it attack head on?" wondered Saphira aloud.

"That's what it's been doing," pointed out Tuffnut.

"It didn't even bother taking out Fishlegs's lower walls," added Hiccup. "Once it knew where he was, it just char-"

He was interrupted by a crash. They all looked up to see the high end of the yak cart seesawing toward them. With cries of alarm they all backed out of the way. Now able to get a clear shot, the Gronkle fired a blast at the four surprised teens. They dodged and ran for the last remaining defense: Astrid's low walls.

"One shot left!" called Gobber. "Astrid, let's see how long your defense lasts."

More than one pair of eyes glared at him, but quickly focused back on the dragon.

Astrid was calm and collected. During the times when the Gronkle had been distracted, she had moved her position forward, and was hiding behind one of the low walls in the front row. She took a deep breath, steeled herself, and leapt out from behind the wall with a war cry. She charged the dragon, who instinctively fired off a lava shot that Astrid dodged. The fireball continued directly toward the students behind the other walls.

Astrid watched transfixed as it flew past Hiccup, then the twins, then Fishlegs, then Saphira… and headed straight for Snolout.

The world seemed to move in slow-motion. Snotlout's eyes widened as the fireball inched closer, and closer, until…

Saphira suddenly grabbed the boy's arm. He didn't have time to react before he was pulled out of the way of the deadly shot.

Astrid breathed a sigh of relief and turned back toward the dragon; as annoying as Snotlout was, she didn't want him to _die_.

Gobber, at the same time, hopped down into the arena. "That's six!" he announced to no one in particular. Astrid lowered her axe as Gobber hooked the dragon's jaw and threw it back into its cage.

The teenagers breathed a collective sigh of relief. Gobber turned to them.

"Not bad for a first go," he praised. "Some of your defenses were actually very similar to what we'll be using later. Others," he glared pointedly at Snotlout and the twins, "were less than satisfactory. But if you work on it, maybe next time Saphira won't have to save you, eh Snotlout?" Gobber teased.

The teen in question scowled and turned away, mumbling under his breath.

Hiccup chose that moment to clear his throat. Gobber turned to him.

"Um… are we done?" asked the teen. "'Cause if we are…"

"Oi, don't you dare think of sneaking off! You've got work to do."

"Right, right, of course," said Hiccup, backing toward the arena's exit. "I was definitely _not_ gonna try to get out of that."

Gobber narrowed his eyes. "Hiccup…"

"So I'll just meet you at the smithy, ok? Ok."

With that Hiccup turned tail and ran out of the arena, dropping his equipment on his way out.

"OI!" called out the teacher after him.

The other teens just rolled their eyes and began talking among themselves. Saphira, however, watched Hiccup leave with a worried look. She snapped out of it, however, when Gobber approached her.

"Don't think you can get out of work too, lass! You better be at the smithy when I get there with Hiccup."

Saphira remained silent as she watched Gobber's retreating form, a conflicted look on her face. She didn't notice Snotlout coming up behind her until he greeted her with a rough "Hey."

Saphira jumped slightly, but sighed when she realized who it was. "What is it, Snotlout?"

The boy grit his teeth at her exasperated voice. "Don't act like you don't know!" he said loudly, catching the attention of Astrid, Fishlegs, and the twins.

"What?" asked the girl, surprised at his harshness and thoroughly confused. "Seriously, what are you talking about?"

"Don't make me look stupid! You already made me look weak!" shouted the boy, taking a step closer to Saphira.

Comprehension dawned on her and she scowled as she rubbed her temple. "Look Snotlout, I would love to argue with you, but I'm not in the mood to deal with your inferiority complex."

"My what?"

"So why don't you just count to ten or whatever and we can just – "

"Don't patronize me!" shouted Snotlout, accentuating his words with a punch aimed for Saphira. Fishlegs gasped as the girl ducked.

"Snotlout, what are you doing?" asked Astrid angrily.

"I'm gonna prove I can take care of myself! Just you watch babe; I'm gonna take her down!" responded Snotlout with a nasty smirk.

Astrid glared at him.

"Saphira?"

"Yes Astrid?"

"Kick his butt," said the warrior in training before walking out of the arena, dragging the twins behind her.

"Hey!" complained Tuff. "Why are you kicking us out?"

"Yeah!" supported Ruff.

"Because knowing you two, you'll end up joining the fight," said Astrid matter-of-factly.

"What's wrong with that?" asked the twins simultaneously.

"Because I want Saphira to teach Snotlout a lesson, and you two would only get in the way."

"Wait, then what about you?" asked Tuffnut. "Wouldn't you want to throw some punches?"

Astrid paused, then grit her teeth. "This is Saphira's fight. The next time Snotlout hits on me, I'll punch him in the face," she promised.

The twins glanced at each other as Astrid dragged them away.

Fishlegs, meanwhile, was looking nervously between Saphira and Snotlout.

"Hey, can't we come to a peaceful resolution?" he asked tremulously.

"No," said Snotlout bluntly, glaring at Saphira.

"Sorry Fishlegs," said the girl, glaring back at Snotlout, "but I won't back down from him."

"Umm…" Fishlegs drummed his fingers together nervously, unsure of what to do.

"Get out of here, nerd!" yelled Snotlout, looking angrily at the other boy. "Or I'll pound you next!"

Fishlegs paled and left in a hurry. Snotlout turned back to Saphira.

"Where were we?" he asked, cracking his knuckles.

Saphira rolled her eyes at the intimidation attempt.

"You were about to get your butt handed to you," she said, casually adopting a fighting stance. She smirked at his surprised face. "What's the matter?" she asked tauntingly. "Are you scared, tough guy?"

Snotlout scowled and took his own fighting stance. The opponents began circling each other, studying each other, looking for an opportunity.

Snotlout was the first to attack.

He charged with a war cry, fist drawn back. Saphira easily dodged his punch. She grabbed his arm and used his own momentum to spin him around before releasing him. Snotlout quickly regained his balance, turning back to Saphira with a downright murderous look in his eye. Saphira took her stance once again, but was a little less casual about it.

Snotlout charged again. Saphira dodged once more, but Snotlout expected the move and countered with another blow. His fist glanced across her cheek. Saphira leapt backwards, holding the side of her head. For the first time during the fight, she looked angry.

Snotlout grinned maliciously. He was finally getting to her.

Saphira scowled in return before attacking him.

"Woah!" Snotlout couldn't stop the exclamation of surprise as he blocked the girl's blows. Her punched were light and fast, threatening to overwhelm him. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Saphira launched a kick at his stomach. It met its mark, but Snotlout grabbed her foot out of sheer instinct even as he took a step back with a grunt.

There was a pause. Both teens took a moment to look at the foot in Snotlout's hands before looking at each other. Before Saphira could do anything, Snotlout pushed her off balance. Saphira fell backwards to the ground. Snotlout stooped over her, his fist raised, but Saphira kicked at him with both feet. Snotlout stumbled backwards as Saphira jumped up. With a war cry of her own, she charged the boy. Snotlout looked up just in time to block her. Saphira kept punching him, but Snotlout noticed that the blows weren't coming as fast as before, even if they were heavier. When he saw one coming, he took the opportunity to grab Saphira's arm. To Snotlout's surprise she growled and attempted to punch him with her other fist, which he also took hold of.

For a couple moments the battle was test of strength, but soon Snotlout overcame the skinnier girl and threw both of them to the ground.

The rest of the fight became a wrestling match. One minute Snotlout would have the upper hand, then Saphira would slip out of his grip like a snake and pin him. He would then break out of her grip and the cycle would start over. Before long the two were tired, bruised, and dirty, but still they persisted.

Then, Saphira pinned Snotlout with an arm to his throat. The boy suddenly began finding it hard to breathe. He started clawing at Saphira's arm while the girl raised a fist. For the first time during the fight Snotlout was scared.

"Saph-Saphira!" he choked, still trying to get her arm off his neck. The girl paused, panting. For a moment nothing happened. Then, Snotlout saw the anger drain from her face, only to be replaced by fear.

"Oh my gods," she said in a panicked voice, scrambling away from Snotlout. "Oh my gods, Snotlout, I… I…" she didn't finish her sentence as she put her head in her hands and took deep, shaky breaths.

Snotlout, meanwhile, was busy getting his breath back. Once he had, he looked at Saphira, prepared to give her a piece of his mind. His anger froze, however, when he saw the girl with her hands covering her face.

Snotlout didn't know what to do. 'Is she crying?' he wondered. 'Oh Thor, please don't let her be crying.' He had no idea how to deal with a crying woman. 'I should probably make sure she's ok? Is that the right thing to do here?' He gulped and nervously approached Saphira. He gently put a hand on her shoulder. The girl instinctively flinched away. She looked up at Snotlout, who breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh good, you're not crying."

Saphira blinked at him in shock. Snotlout stared back, confused.

"What?" he asked.

"I…I…"

"Oh come on woman, spit it out. You're not crying, so what's your deal?" said Snotlout angrily.

Saphira stared at him for a moment, her jaw on the floor.

"You're… You're not… I could have killed you, and you're worried about _me_?"

'Crap,' thought Snotlout.

"Uh, of course not! I just… I could get in trouble if I hurt you too much," he said, turning away.

Behind his back, Saphira smiled a little. "Uh huh. Of course." She slowly got to her feet, then sighed. Snotlout turned to face her at the sound. She looked up at him.

"I'm sorry. I've just been a little on edge lately and, well, I guess I had more pent up stress than I thought."

"Pssh, whatever Saphira. We fought, you won, and that's the end of it." He looked away, and there was a short silence.

"What were we fighting about again?" Saphira asked.

"I…" Snotlout looked at her. "You saved me," he stated simply. "And that made me look weak."

Saphira groaned. "Ugh, you tough guys are all the same. Look," she said quickly as Snotlout opened his mouth to protest, "I get it. You've got this whole tough-guy act going on, and you think me saving you messed it up. Right?"

Snotlout crossed his arms but didn't answer.

"It didn't, Snotlout. Even the toughest warrior needs saving now and again; no one is going to look down on you for this." She paused. "They… they only look down on you because your tough guy act actually makes you a jerk," she finished quietly.

Snotlout glared at her. Saphira held up her hands in surrender.

"Hey, you can take my word for it or not, but that's the way I see it," she said. Snotlout huffed.

"Whatever. What do you know? Just because you beat me…" he started grumbling under his breath, too quiet for Saphira to hear. She sighed.

"Hey, if you want, why don't we call this one a draw?" she offered, putting out her hand.

"A draw?" he said questioningly. "But..."

"Do you really want people to know you lost?"

"No, but-"

"Then shut up already and shake on it."

Snotlout blinked before grudgingly taking her hand. "Fine. It was a draw."

Saphira smiled. "Great. I'll see you tomorrow then," she said as she took a step towards the exit – only to drop to her knee with a cry of pain.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Snotlout, moving toward her but not touching her. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," said Saphira through her teeth.

"Who's the tough guy now?" asked Snotlout, roughly helping her to her feet. The girl grunted in pain. Snotlout looked her up and down.

"You should go see Goethe," he declared.

"Who?"

"Ugh, don't you know anything?" asked Snotlout, looping Saphira's arm over his shoulder. "She's the healer, and elder of the village. I'll take you to her."

Saphira looked up at him in surprise. "Uh, thanks."

"Whatever. Don't get used to it," said the boy as they left the arena.

"Jerk," responded Saphira without heat.

They made the rest of their hike in silence. Neither wanted to answer any awkward questions so they took a route outside the main village. By the time they made it all the way up the steep steps to the old woman's hut, both teens wondered if the exhausting trek was worth it.

"Goethe!" called Snotlout breathlessly. "Where are you?"

The village elder poked her head out of the hut, took one look at the bruised and beaten teens, and began to shove them inside.

"Ow! Hey, watch it!" complained Saphira as she was forced to sit down on a chair. Goethe ignored the girl as she began inspecting her body. Snotlout leaned back in another chair a ways away and closed his eyes as Saphira was poked and prodded.

After a few moments of awkward silence the girl cleared her throat. "Uh, so Goethe, you were the one who fixed me up after Hiccup pulled me out of the harbor."

The old woman nodded.

"Well, uh, thank you, I – OUCH!"

Saphira yanked her right ankle out of Goethe's grip. The elder looked at it thoughtfully before hobbling off to search through her supplies.

"She's not one for conversation, is she?" whispered Saphira to Snotlout.

"Uh, she's mute," clarified Snotlout, opening one eye to look at Saphira. "Seriously, did no one ever tell you about her?"

"No," admitted the girl. "But if she's mute, how does she communicate?"

"Oh, she understands everything that's said to her just fine. Trust me, I found out the hard way." Saphira eyed him in curiosity, but the boy didn't notice. "She, uh, 'speaks' by writing these weird symbols in the dirt or with coal or whatever. I think Gobber's the only one who can really understand them."

"Symbols?"

"Yeah. It's all gibberish if you ask me," said Snotlout. Just then a clay bowl came flying out of nowhere, hitting Snotlout directly in the head.

"Hey! I thought you were supposed to be a healer, lady!" yelled the boy, sitting up.

The old woman ignored him and began putting salve and a bandage on Saphira's ankle. Snotlout crossed his arms and started grumbling again. Saphira rolled her eyes. Before long Goethe was finished. The elder stood up and pointed to the ankle, then held up two fingers.

Saphira blinked. Goethe did the hand signs again.

"…I should wear the bandage for two days?" guessed Saphira. Goethe nodded and moved on to Snotlout.

"Hey, easy with the poking!" warned the boy as the elder began to inspect him. "Goethe, I'm fine. Just give me some herb juice or whatever and we'll be on our way."

The elder ended up giving Snotlout nothing but a whack on the head with her staff as she shooed the pair out. Snotlout stormed down the stairs first, though he noticed Goethe stop Saphira. A minute later the girl caught up to him. Snotlout glanced over at her, only to see that Saphira was as white as wool.

"What happened?" asked the boy.

"Nothing," replied Saphira, just a little too quickly. However, Snotlout shrugged it off, thinking it might be a side effect of the medicine.

"Well, now that that's taken care of, I gotta go," said Snotlout as he began walking toward the village. He waved goodbye without looking at the girl. "See you later."

"Yeah…" said Saphira, casting one final glance toward Goethe's hut. "See ya." She started jogging for the smithy.

* * *

 **A/N:**

I own nothing except my OC.


	9. Chapter 9

Gobber struck the length of metal before him with more force than was strictly necessary as he grumbled under his breath.

"No-good norn…" _Bang!_

"Conniving little snake…" _Bang!_

"Daughter of Hel…" _Bang!_

"Twig-sized trickster!" _Snap!_

"Argh!" yelled the frustrated blacksmith as the dented steel before him finally snapped. The burly man threw his hammer to the ground and started pacing the small space of the smithy in his uneven gait.

It hadn't taken Hiccup long to shake his mentor after dragon training, much to Gobber's chagrin. After briefly and fruitlessly searching for the boy, he had stomped back to the smithy, expecting to at least find Saphira working.

'But no!' thought Gobber as he roughly picked up the two pieces of metal and threw them back into the forge. 'No, she and Hiccup are probably laughin' at me in some Odin-forsaken part of the forest." He studied the metal in the coals and reached for the tongs, turning the steel over. "Leavin' me to do all the work…"

"Hi, Gobber."

The blacksmith spun around sharply, red hot tongs in hand. "YOU!" he bellowed when he saw Saphira, pointing the tool at the girl's face. "Where were you?! And where's Hiccup?!"

Saphira instinctively took a step back with her right foot, visibly wincing as she did so. "I, uh… I don't know where Hiccup is," she said.

Gobber narrowed his eyes at her and lowered the tongs. "Eh? I thought for sure he was with you somewhere. What 'ave you been doin', then? And what's wrong with your foot?"

Saphira hesitated, glancing at her injured ankle. "I got into a fight with Snotlout," she admitted with a sigh. "I twisted my ankle."

They stood there for a moment. Saphira avoided Gobber's gaze as he studied her, seemingly pondering something.

"Did ya beat him?" he finally asked.

Saphira's head snapped up to look at the blacksmith in surprise, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "It was a draw," she said.

"A twisted ankle and all ya can say is that it was a draw?" scoffed Gobber.

"Yup," she deadpanned.

Gobber grumbled under his breath before asking, "Can you at least stand alright?"

The girl limped toward the whetstone. "Yeah, more or less," she said through gritted teeth.

Gobber watched as she picked up a dull sword next to the whetstone and began to sharpen it. He studied her for an extra moment before turning away with a shrug.

'If she wants to work, I'm not going to stop her,' he thought to himself, a part of him viewing the situation as divine retribution. Nevertheless, he made sure she didn't do any heavy lifting or jobs that required much walking.

They didn't talk much as they worked. Gobber was too involved in his duties, and Saphira was too focused on working through her pain. Both looked up, however, when a figure walked into the smithy during the middle of the afternoon.

Gobber was upon Hiccup as soon as he saw him. The blacksmith lifted the boy up by the front of his shirt and bellowed "FOR ODIN'S SAKE WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Then he shoved Hiccup dangerously close to the forge before he even had a chance to answer. Gobber continued berating him even as Hiccup got to work. Saphira watched them for a bit, but turned away when Hiccup made to look at her. Hiccup's gaze lingered on the back of her head for a moment before he forced himself to focus on his work.

'I'll talk to her after this,' he promised himself.

It was after sundown when Gobber finally let the teens out of the smithy. Hiccup waited for Saphira outside, noticing her limp for the first time as she approached him.

"What happened to you?" he asked in concern.

"I got in a fight with Snotlout," she told him. "It was a draw, if you're wondering. What did you do today?" she asked before Hiccup asked her to elaborate.

He almost asked anyway, curious about the circumstances that would lead to such a showdown. However, he reminded himself that he had other things to worry about.

"Can… can we talk?" he asked, ignoring her question.

"…we are talking," she responded with a small but wary smirk.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "No, I mean – you know what I mean."

She sighed. "Yeah, sure. Let's talk. But we should probably do it somewhere else," she suggested, glancing at the smithy next to them. "How do you feel about walking me home?"

Hiccup blinked. "What?"

"I need to get home to rest this ankle. We can talk on the way," she clarified.

"Oh. Sure," he agreed.

They set off at a slow pace through the dark village, illuminated sporadically with torches. All was quiet except for the sound of their feet and the distant bleating of sheep. After they had gone out of earshot of the smithy, Hiccup cleared his throat.

"So."

He hesitated, the potential weight of his words suddenly abundantly clear in the darkness. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"So I've been thinking," he began. "My problem is less with the fact that you're with the dragons, and more with the fact that you lied."

Silence. Hiccup gave Saphira sufficient time to respond, but hearing nothing, he plowed forward.

"I trusted you," he confessed. "You were a real friend, and… for me, that's rare. And when you told me you weren't who I thought you were, I felt betrayed. But…"

He took another deep breath.

"But I can't blame you for making the choices you did. Yesterday I made a few of the same ones. I befriended a dragon, and I kept that a secret from people I've known my whole life – like Gobber. I can't blame you for keeping secrets from strangers."

"Hiccup…" the relief in Saphira's voice only made Hiccup's next words harder to say.

"I can't trust you like I did before, though," Hiccup blurted, wincing at his own callousness. "I'm sorry, I just can't. I know that you can and will lie to me to protect yourself, and…"

He heard a sigh from the space next to him. "I understand," said Saphira. "And you're right. I still haven't told you everything, and… and maybe I never will. But for what it's worth, thank you."

"You're welcome," said Hiccup. A heavy silence passed between them until Hiccup broke it again.

"Do you think we can still be friends?"

Saphira laughed a little at that. "I feel like I should be asking _you_ that."

"So is that a yes?" asked Hiccup hopefully.

Saphira paused. "To be honest Hiccup, I don't know. It's not that I don't want to," she added quickly, "it's just that… you know you can't trust me. How can you be friends with someone you can't trust?"

Her words gave Hiccup pause. He thought for a moment.

"The same way I can be friends with a dragon," he answered with a shrug.

Saphira didn't respond. He turned toward her and found that she was looking at him with incredulity.

"What?"

Saphira shook her head. "You're crazy," she stated simply. Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"You wouldn't be the first to say so."

They walked in a more amiable silence then. Hiccup found that his chest felt light, as if a great burden had been taken off. For the moment it didn't matter to him that he couldn't trust Saphira; he was just glad to have his friend back. When he caught sight of the Thorston's house approaching, he was sorry to see it.

Saphira saw the end of their walk coming as well and cleared her throat, one more conversation topic on her mind.

"So, I wanted to ask about the Night Fury-" she started.

"Toothless," corrected Hiccup automatically.

"What?" asked Saphira.

"The Night Fury – I named him Toothless," said Hiccup, a bit embarrassed.

"Um, ok…" said Saphira. "Toothless then." She paused for a heartbeat. "How did you come up with that name?"

"Well, he has retractable teeth," explained Hiccup. "It makes sense. Sort of."

"Huh. Well anyway, why did you go to see him this afternoon? I assume that's where you ran off to after training."

"Uh, yeah. I was measuring," said Hiccup vaguely.

"Measuring?" said Saphira questioningly.

"Well, you know how Toothless is missing a tail fin?"

"Yeah…"

"I wanted to build him a new one," said Hiccup a bit uncertainly, not sure what Saphira would think of the idea.

There was a moment of silence before the girl asked, "Can you actually do it?"

"Probably. I already have design; all I really needed were the dimensions. I actually want to start building the prototype tonight," he responded.

"Wow," responded Saphira. " _Wow_. I knew you were good with a forge, but this is more impressive than I think you realize."

"What do you mean?" asked Hiccup.

"Well, you're hardly the first to try building prosthetics for dragons," began the girl, "but it took the smiths I know _forever_ to learn how to do it. If you can build a working prototype in less than a week…"

"Wait a second," interrupted the boy. "Do _you_ know how to build Toothless a tail?"

The girl fell silent for a few moments, contemplating her answer. "…I've seen other smiths build tails for other dragons. Given enough time I could probably do it, yes. I've spent a fair share of my time in smithies. But if you've already got a design, the last thing I want to do is meddle with it." She smiled as she stopped outside the Thorston house. "I'm curious to see how it'll turn out."

Hiccup smiled back. "I'll let you know."

* * *

The following morning Hiccup made his way to the grotto, straining under the weight of a large basket of fish and the bundle under his arm. He yawned, almost losing his footing on the uneven forest ground. His project had kept him up the entire night; but, although his body was tired, his mind felt more alert than ever. He kept going over the details of the fin in his head, trying to predict how it would work not only in theory but in practice. Before he knew it he had reached the grotto. As he entered he forced himself to calm down, not wanting to startle the dragon as he approached him.

"Hey Toothless…" he called gently. The dragon looked up at the name and immediately started sniffing the air. "I brought breakfast," said Hiccup with a grunt as he dropped the basket and tried to knock it over with his foot. "I hope… I hope you're hungry." The basket tipped, spilling its contents much to Toothless's interest.

"Okay, that's disgusting," stated Hiccup as the dragon inspected the pile of seafood. "Uh… we've got some salmon, some nice Icelandic cod, and a whole smoked eel."

Almost as soon as he said the words, Toothless tensed and growled. He began to back away from the seafood. Hiccup widened his eyes in surprise before stooping down to pick up the eel. Toothless took one look at the thing before leaning away with a hiss of disgust.

"No, no, no! It's okay!" Hiccup tried to reassure the dragon as he tossed the creature to the side. He held up his hand in a placating manner. Toothless snorted at it, unable to stand even the smell. Hiccup smiled a little. "Yeah, I don't like eel much either," he said as he wiped his hand on his fur vest.

Toothless turned his attention to the remaining fish. Hiccup saw his chance and cautiously began maneuvering his way to the dragon's tail.

"Okay. That's it, that's it… just stick with good stuff. And don't you mind me, I'll just be back here… minding my own business…"

Glancing at the dragon, Hiccup slowly knelt and positioned his contraption next to Toothless's tail. When he attempted to move it close enough to attach, however, the injured tail shifted away. Hiccup looked up to the other end of the dragon, only to see him munching on the few remaining fish. Hiccup tried again to move the prosthetic closer but met with no success. He let out a startled gasp when the tail flapped upwards, shooting a quick but pointless "It's ok" to Toothless before losing his patience altogether. He tried to pin the tail down, internally cursing his weak muscles when the tail moved anyway.

Meanwhile, Toothless's full attention was still on the fish – or rather, trying to find the residual scraps of fish. His ear flaps perked up when he spotted something in the basket itself, and he lunged forward, causing Hiccup to fall on his face.

With a huff the boy decided he had had enough and roughly sat down on the fickle tail. "Okay...okay…" he said to himself as he started to attach the prosthetic.

Toothless abruptly tensed at the sensation, raising his head with wide eyes. He tried to shift his tail a bit to find out what exactly was going on. When he realized precisely what area Hiccup was meddling with, his whole body went slack with shock.

Slowly, Toothless began to spread his wings.

At the same time, Hiccup finished strapping his contraption in place. "There," he said, sitting back to observe his handiwork. "Not too bad, it works…" he mumbled to himself, putting a hand to his chin in consideration.

The next moment both his hands gripped the dragon's tail for dear life as Toothless bolted into the air.

"Whoa!" screamed Hiccup as the distance between him and the ground increased. "Whoa! No no no no no – ahhh!"

He whipped his eyes back and forth between the dragon's head and the aerial view of the ground. Abruptly, in the midst of his terror, Hiccup noticed a flaw in the prosthetic's design: it didn't stay fanned out in the air.

Not a moment later, Toothless began to fall out of the sky. Hiccup once again yelled out in fear, but was able to pull open his contraption with a grunt before he and Toothless hit the ground.

It was such a small thing, but it made a world of difference.

Toothless swooped up and out of the grotto, climbing higher and higher.

"Oh my… It's working!" exclaimed Hiccup, his fear forgotten at the thrill of success. He tried adjusting the angle of the tailfin, causing Toothless to bank to the right. The dragon adjusted his wings accordingly, and the pair dived into the grotto again, just skimming the surface of the pool therein.

"Yes! Yes, I did it!" exclaimed Hiccup breathlessly, looking at the tailfin with a smile on his face.

Hearing his words, the dragon for the first time realized he had a passenger. After briefly glancing underneath himself to look at the human, he decided that the boy was inhibiting his freedom.

Therefore, he turned sharply, causing Hiccup to lose his grip.

Hiccup cried out as he skipped like a rock across the grotto pool. The dragon, meanwhile, noticed an immediate change in his aerodynamics and once again glanced at his tail, one side of which had gone slack. The next moment he found himself crashing into the water.

"Yeah!" shouted Hiccup, still elated from his success despite the biting cold of the water. If anything, the water had helped his body wake up. Both he and Toothless climbed out of the water.

"Well," Hiccup addressed the dragon, "how about that?"

The dragon glared at the human, less than ecstatic about his morning plunge. However, if for however brief a time, the boy had helped him regain flight. So, Toothless settled for knocking the would-be Viking off his feet in annoyance.

Undeterred, Hiccup stood up with a grin. He began to pace back and forth, muttering excitedly about what improvements and adjustments he could make. Although Toothless understood very little of it, he watched Hiccup with interest. He did growl a bit with disapproval when the human brought up the prospect of riding the dragon, but Hiccup didn't notice.

When Hiccup went to remove the prosthetic tail fin, however, Toothless leapt back with a hiss. Hiccup took a step back.

"Come on, Toothless," he coaxed, holding his hand out. "I just need to see it so I can make some improvements."

The dragon hissed again. It didn't matter what Hiccup said; the contraption on his tail had made flight possible for him again, and he'd be _damned_ if he gave it up for even a second. The dragon and human stared each other down, until Hiccup relented with a sigh.

"Ok, fine. You win."

The dragon sat up with a self-righteous snort. Hiccup rolled his eyes to the sky – only to notice how bright it was. His eyes widened.

"Dragon training," he breathed. He turned tail and rushed toward the exit. As Toothless watched him leave, he noticed something on the ground.

Hiccup paused when he heard the dragon call. He turned and saw Toothless glaring pointedly at the eel, which was still sitting in the middle of the clearing. After a moment of hesitation, Hiccup sprinted for the dead sea creature and tucked it into his vest before running for the arena, hoping he wasn't too late.

* * *

"Targeting him might backfire on us," pointed out Tuffnut thoughtfully.

"Horribly," added Ruffnut with a shudder.

"Come on, guys," pushed Saphira. "Think of the look on his face!" She started to smile herself at the mental image. She and the twins were slowly making their way over the bridge that led to the arena.

The twins looked at each other from either side of Saphira.

"It is daring…" admitted Ruff from the right.

"And if we do it right, we might even have – what's it called?" asked Tuff from the left.

"Plausible deniability," murmured the sister with an awed look on her face. "I can't remember the last time we had that."

"Me either," said the brother, longing in his voice.

Saphira's smile widened. "So that's it then. We have our target. Now we just need to figure out-"

"Saphira!" The trio stopped abruptly and turned around to see Hiccup running toward them.

Well, running might have been a generous description. It was obvious to all three of the teens that the blacksmith's apprentice was thoroughly exhausted. As he got closer, they noticed his general disheveled state and the bags under his eyes. He stopped in front of them, panting with his hands on his knees.

The twins froze, uncertain as to what they needed to do in this situation. Saphira, however, limped forward and put a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Hiccup? Are you ok?" she asked in concern.

"Am… am I late for dragon training?" he asked breathlessly, not looking up. The twins blinked in surprised.

"Well, you gotta give him points for dedication," commented Ruffnut, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, I guess," admitted Tuffnut. Then he squinted at the other boy. "Are you… did you go swimming?" he asked.

"Hiccup, you're not late – well, no later than we are," said Saphira, answering Hiccup's question and ignoring the twins. "What happened?"

Hiccup looked up at her, eyes over-alert and his smile wide. Saphira arched an eyebrow and the twins glanced at each other. Hiccup looked over Saphira's shoulder at the pair and his smile lessened, but didn't fade.

"I'll tell you later," he promised Saphira as he stood up. The girl limped backward, giving him some space.

"Ok, but seriously: did you go swimming?" asked Tuff, stepping forward to poke Hiccup's damp vest.

"Uh, sort of," answered Hiccup, slightly alarmed at the other boy's sudden close proximity.

Ruffnut snorted and turned around to continue walking toward the arena. "Who would be crazy enough to go swimming around here?" she pointed out. "The water's freezing on this heap of rock."

"You call it freezing, I call it _refreshing_ ," said Tuffnut. "But that's to be expected – I am, of course, the twin with the high pain tolerance," he added smugly.

Ruffnut grinned. "All that means is that I can throw sharp objects at you without too much complaining," she said sadistically.

"I don't complain because you hardly ever hit me," retorted the brother. "I'm also the twin with better aiming skills. And tracking skills. And strength. And, well, pretty much everything."

Ruffnut hit him hard on the back of the head. "The only thing you're good at is being an idiot," she scoffed.

"That's not true!"

"Uh, yeah it is."

"No its not!"

"Yeah it is!"

"Not!"

"Is!"

"Not!"

"Is!"

Saphira and Hiccup watched the twins' exchange with amusement.

"They're like a couple of two year olds," commented Hiccup.

Saphira laughed. "Yeah, they are. Did you know they still sleep with their toy dragon dolls?"

Hiccup grinned. "I didn't before now. We…" his smile faltered slightly. "We never really hang out much," finished Hiccup.

Saphira studied him for a moment before shrugging. "That's probably for the best," she said with a teasing smile. "I can't imagine how much more terrifying their pranks would have been with your brains added to the mix."

Hiccup smirked. "Thanks."

"There you are!" The twins quit their squabbling as Gobber addressed them. "We've been waitin' for you for the better part of an hour!"

"Gobber made us clean up the arena," grumbled Snotlout from next to the teacher. "Do you _know_ how much wood was in there?!"

"Well, given that most of the items were either planks or boxes, except for the yak cart," began Fishlegs from off to the side, "and that the boxes were made of similar planks each about three to four-"

"No one asked you, nerd," Snotlout interrupted.

"And no one asked _you_ , Snotlout," shot back Astrid, pushing off from the wall she had been leaning against. "Can we get started with training now?" she asked Gobber impatiently.

"Right," said the blacksmith. "All right class, today I'm going to be splitting you up into teams of two."

Everyone collectively groaned.

"Oi! None o' that!" yelled Gobber in an irritated tone. His gaze swept over the students and rested on Saphira. "You, lass," he called out. "Are you still limpin'?"

The girl nodded in annoyance. "Unfortunately."

Gobber nodded once in return. "Right. You're out of this one."

"What?!"

"You heard me! I can't have you goin' and hurtin' your ankle even more. You can watch, but you can't be a part of the lesson."

Saphira scowled but said nothing. Gobber chose to take that as compliance, if not acceptance.

"As for the rest of you: Snotlout and Tuffnut, you'll be working together. Astrid you're with Ruffnut, and that leaves Hiccup with Fishlegs. Everyone grab a bucket of water!" ordered Gobber. The students scrambled to obey and entered the arena, forming a line in front of the dragon cage their teacher indicated. He made sure Saphira stayed at the edge of the ring.

"Uh, Gobber?" asked Fishlegs timidly. "What exactly are we doing?"

Gobber smiled toothily at the boy. "I'm glad you asked," he said as he strolled over to a dragon cage and put his hand on the lever.

"Today is about teamwork," he announced as he opened the Zippleback cage.

 **A/N:**

I own nothing except my OC.


	10. Chapter 10

"Today is about teamwork," Gobber announced as he opened the Zippleback cage.

As soon as they unlocked, the double doors of the enclosure exploded open. Grey-green smoke billowed out into the arena, surrounding the teens as they separated into their teams of two.

"Now a wet dragon head can't light its fire," Gobber told the students as the thick smog enveloped them, effectively rendering them blind. "The hideous Zippleback is extra tricky. One head _breathes_ gas, the other head _lights_ it. Your job is to know which is which."

Gobber made his way to the edge of the arena next to Saphira, who had opted to stand with her back against the wall. She stared intently into the fog, concern creasing her forehead.

"Somethin' wrong, lass?" asked Gobber as he positioned himself beside her.

"Nothing's _wrong_ ," murmured the girl, "but I have to say I'd feel a lot better if I could see them."

Meanwhile, the rest of the teens were trying to see through the smoke. Each pair slowly circled in place, back to back. Their wide eyes scanned the shadows in the fog, silently searching for any trace of the dragon that was lurking somewhere between the acrid clouds.

Some took the tension better than others.

Fishlegs, nervous as he was, began to softly recite his knowledge of the Zippleback in an attempt to stay calm. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect on Hiccup.

"Razor sharp serrated teeth, that inject venom for predigestion; prefers ambush attack, crushing its victims – "

"Would you please stop that!?" exclaimed Hiccup in a loud whisper. Fishlegs flinched but shut his mouth.

Tuffnut and Snotlout were not calm, but neither were they particularly frightened. They circled each other in anticipation, rapidly searching the haze for any sign of the Zippleback. Tuffnut was even smiling, though Snotlout pushed him around to search the smoke.

If that dragon shows either of its faces," began Snotlout cockily, "I'm gonna – _there_!" He pointed at a shadow within the fog, and he and Tuffnut threw their water at the figure.

There was a cry of surprise. "Hey! It's us, idiots." Said Ruffnut in irritation, stepping forward into the boys' view.

"Your butts are getting bigger," said Tuffnut. "We thought you were a dragon, hehe."

"Not that there's anything wrong… with… a _dragonesque_ figure-" Snotlout was cut off by Astrid's fist in his face. He crumpled to the ground like a sack of rocks.

Tuffnut watched him go down, entertained. Then Ruffnut threw her bucket of water at him, which knocked him to the ground as well. He sat up with a groan.

Suddenly, something in the smoke grabbed Tuff from behind so quickly his helmet fell off. He instantly began screaming. Astrid and Ruffnut stared in the direction of his cries in horrified surprise. Ruff took a few steps forward.

"Wait," warned Astrid, knowing the dragon was close. She gripped her bucket tightly.

A tail suddenly swooped under them from behind, knocking them on their feet and spilling their last bucket of water.

Tuffnut burst out of the smoke, stumbling over his sister as he yelled, "I am hurt! I am very much hurt!"

He ran past Hiccup and Fishlegs, who wondered what exactly had happened as the fog cleared. They stared after him for a moment before turning nervously back to the remaining dregs of smog.

"Chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now," commented Fishlegs tremulously.

Suddenly a green head emerged, snakelike, from the smoke. "Woah!" yelled Fishlegs as the head came after him. Hiccup slowly backed away. Fishlegs stumbled backwards until, with shaking hands, he tossed his water directly onto the head. It promptly began to emit sickly green gas in response.

"Oh. Wrong head," said Fishlegs with a little laugh. Then the dragon head spouted the noxious gas directly at the teen. He screamed.

"Fishlegs!" Gobber yelled in panic. The teen didn't seem to hear him as he ran off to, leaving Hiccup alone with the now fully visible dragon. Gobber turned back to the dragon and the skinny form in front of it. He instinctively put his arm out and felt Saphira bump into it.

The girl glared at him. Gobber didn't take his eyes off of Hiccup. Both were ready to intervene should the need arise.

The Zippleback's left head spat sparks. Hiccup felt adrenaline coursing through him, urging him into fight or flight mode.

"Now, Hiccup!"

Gobber's shout made the boy spring into action. He gripped his bucket and hurled his water as hard as he could at the sparking dragon head.

It fell back to earth with a splash.

"Oh come on," complained Hiccup as the dragon's left head twisted closer to him.

He had a moment to think, 'Why is it always me?" before the dragon as whole lunged toward him with a shriek, startling Hiccup backwards onto the ground. The bucket rolled away from him, forgotten.

"Hiccup!" yelled Gobber, hobbling forward as fast as he could with Saphira in tow.

Both of them stopped short at the sight in front of them.

Hiccup stood up slowly, hands out in front of him in a warding-off gesture. "Back, back!" he commanded the Zippleback.

To the astonishment of everyone, the dragon obeyed. From the top of the arena, Goethe leaned forward in interest.

"Now, don't you make me tell you again!" warned Hiccup, slowly driving the dragon back toward its confines. "Yes, that's right; back into your cage," said Hiccup, he voice breaking slightly in his nervousness. He cast a quick glance behind him before reaching into his vest and pulling out the eel from earlier that morning. "Now think about what you've done," he told the Zippleback, trying to sound confident. He tossed the dead sea creature into the cage, while the dragon did everything in its power to stay as far away from the vile thing as possible.

Hiccup closed the doors of the dragon's cage against the distressed cries of the Zippleback and wiped his hands on his vest. He turned around and raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Everyone in the arena – and outside of it – was staring at him in speechless astonishment. His gaze swept over all of them and landed on Saphira. Her jaw had dropped, but Hiccup saw a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. A loud noise drew his attention back toward the other teens – Fishlegs had dropped a bucket in his shock. All of their wide eyes were locked on him.

A crawling, itching sensation began to form on his skin. He wasn't used to their attention.

It stuck him that they might start asking him questions if he waited long enough.

'What if they ask me how I did that?' he suddenly wondered fearfully. 'What do I say? I can't tell them the truth... What do I do? Oh Thor what do I do _what do I do_...´

After a lightning round of deliberation, he decided to play ignorant.

"Ok, so, are we done?" he asked with fake cheerfulness. "Cause there's some things I need to…" he pointed vaguely outside. "Yep." He started running away. "I'll see – see you tomorrow!" he called over his shoulder. As he ran he tried his best not to panic.

He never saw Saphira break away from the group to limp after him as fast as she could, or Astrid glance briefly at the dragon cage and back to him.

No one noticed Goethe narrow her eyes as the boy retreated.

Hiccup didn't stop running until he was all the way across the bridge. He breathed heavily, the effects of a sleepless night finally catching up to him. He leaned against the stone cliff face on the right side of the path to the village in an attempt to catch his breath. He was just _so tired_ suddenly and -

"What the _Hel_ was that!?"

Hiccup nearly jumped out of his skin. He whipped his head to his left and saw Saphira standing there, wonder written all over her face.

"What the – don't _do_ that!" he yelled back, putting a hand to his pounding heart.

Saphira took a step closer. "How did you know dragons don't like eels?" she asked brusquely.

Hiccup looked up in surprise. "When did you… whatever." He breathed heavily, getting his heart back under control. "I got the eel from when I fed Toothless this morning. Toothless didn't seem to like it, so I took it with me when I left." His heartbeat faded back to normal, allowing him to think as clearly as his sleep-deprived mind would permit. "Why?"

Saphira stood there for a moment, seemingly contemplating her answer, before shaking her head. "No reason," she said.

Hiccup didn't buy it. However, he was more confused than angry at her for keeping _that_ of all things from him.

"Whatever," he replied, half to himself. "I'm too tired to care anyway."

He straightened and began to continue his way back home. Saphira fell into step beside him.

"So how did it go last night?" she asked after a while.

"Hm?" It took Hiccup a second to understand what she was referring to. "Oh, you mean the tail. Pretty good. I finished it."

"Seriously?" exclaimed Saphira in amazement.

"Yup. Tested it this morning. That's why I was late. Didn't even have time to get rid of the eel." Suddenly he groaned as he remembered something. "I didn't have time to grab the basket either…"

"You tested it this morning?" echoed Saphira. "Wait, does that mean Toothless can fly now!?" she asked excitedly.

"Well, not exactly…" said Hiccup, remembering the incident in the grotto. "He doesn't exactly have control over it. He would need someone else to actually operate it."

Stiarna paused for a moment. "How do you know the prosthetic works if Toothless can't control it himself?" she asked. "I mean, if someone would have to be helping him while in the air…"

Saphira looked at him. Hiccup grinned, a bit sheepishly.

"What exactly did you do?" she asked.

"I… I may have accidently gotten stuck on Toothless's tail when he took off," he said quietly, not sure how she would react.

"Are you telling me," she said slowly, making sure to look him in the eye, "that you rode a dragon this morning?"

"Well, uh, sort of? I mean I was on the tail and focusing on the prosthetic more than anything else…."

He turned away from Stiarna, thinking about it. He found himself remembering more details about his 'flight' now than he had at the time.

He remembered the rush at seeing the ground fall away from him, the feeling of cold air snapping at his clothes and messing up his hair, the drop of his stomach when Toothless went into a dive, the feeling of gravity defied when the dragon had pulled up.

Hiccup found himself smiling through his fatigue. Suddenly he realized he wanted to feel those things again.

"Once you've tasted flight, there's no going back," Saphira said quietly, wistfully. Hiccup turned to her questioningly. She was smiling softly at him with a look of understanding. "I used to ride a dragon," she clarified before turning away.

Hiccup might have imagined it, but before she looked away he caught a glimpse of something like surprise in her expression. When she continued speaking, however, there was nothing but longing in her voice.

"There's nothing like flying. Nothing. You only got a taste, but trust me, that's all it takes to get hooked. Being up there, it's like… like a different world." She looked to the sky, watching the clouds drift by.

"I miss it," she whispered. "I miss that freedom."

Hiccup watched Saphira curiously. He got the feeling that she meant more than she was saying, though in his exhausted state he couldn't hope to figure out what. She suddenly blinked and turned to him again, smiling awkwardly.

"Sorry, I kind of lost myself there," she apologized. "Anyway, I would love to see the prosthetic. Do you think we could…" She trailed off as Hiccup suddenly yawned involuntarily. "You know what? It can wait."

Hiccup looked at her gratefully. He was so tired it was getting hard to see straight. Thankfully they were almost at his house.

Hiccup yawned again. 'Gobber's going to kill me for missing chores,' he thought absently.

"Freya above, I forgot about that!" exclaimed Stiarna. Hiccup realized he had spoken his thought aloud. "Thor… sorry, Hiccup, but I better get to the smithy. I'll cover for you, I promise. Get your rest, you look like you need it," she said quickly even as she redirected her course for the village.

Hiccup merely grunted in acknowledgement. When he finally made it home, he wasted no time in finding his bed.

He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

* * *

Gobber was the first to recover after Hiccup and Saphira left. He immediately started ordering the bewildered teens to clean up, muttering to himself in between instructions. It didn't take them long, but the time seemed to be more than what it was as everyone tried to make sense of the incident.

The twins were less concerned about how it had happened than how they could exploit it for their own purposes.

"This could open a whole new world of possibilities for shenanigans!" exclaimed Tuffnut in a loud whisper.

"Do you think we could bribe him?" Ruffnut asked her brother.

"What would we offer him?" returned Tuff.

"I don't know, but I do know someone who might," responded Ruffnut with a smile.

"Good thinking sister," Tuffnut said as he returned the girl's grin.

They were right behind Gobber when he left the relatively clean arena.

Snotlout, Astrid, and Fishlegs lingered behind.

As soon as the authority figure had left, Snotlout rounded on Fishlegs.

"All right nerd," he growled as he twisted the front of the other boy's shirt. "Spill. How did he do that?"

"Well, I, um… what?" stammered the other boy.

Snotlout ground his teeth. "I'm asking you," he said, tightening his grip, "how _Hiccup_ was able to _cage a dragon_ with his _bare hands_!"

"I – I – I – I don't know!" shouted Fishlegs, clearly in panic.

Suddenly, Snotlout felt a hand on the back of shirt. Astrid yanked him backwards, making him lose his grip on Fishlegs's shirt and stumble onto his butt.

"That's enough, Snotlout," said Astrid coldly, looking down at him. She turned to Fishlegs, softening her expression. "Fishlegs, are you sure you don't know how Hiccup did it? Was there anything in the book of dragons?"

"I – I've been trying to figure it out, b-believe me, but nothing I've ever read… I'm sorry," said the large boy.

Astrid huffed, an irritated scowl on her face. "It's not your fault," she assured him. Snotlout murmured something angrily on the floor behind her.

"But, um, you know…" began Fishlegs timidly. Astrid raised an eyebrow. "I – or, um, we – could go ask him."

Astrid blinked. Snotlout looked up in surprise.

"…Why didn't I think of that?" muttered Snotlout and Astrid at the same time. Fishlegs chose not to respond.

Astrid turned on her heel and began walking toward the exit. Snotlout scrambled to his feet.

"Woah, wait for me, babe!" he called, running to catch up.

Astrid turned, grabbed Snotlout's hand and twisted it. The boy fell to his knees with a grunt of pain, but the girl didn't let go.

"Call me 'babe' one more time," she growled, "and I will feed you to the next dragon I see." She released him roughly, then motioned to the other boy in the arena. "Come on, Fishlegs. Hiccup might be more willing to talk to me if you're there. And you probably want to figure this out more than I do."

The large nerd followed her quickly, glancing at Snotlout as he did.

Snotlout was holding his wrist, and Fishlegs was surprised to see him looking at it in seemingly deep contemplation. The dark haired boy suddenly looked up to find Fishlegs staring at him.

"What are you looking at?" he asked defensively.

"N-nothing," stammered Fishlegs hastily. He ran to catch up to Astrid and didn't look back.

After another moment of staring at his wrist, Snotlout stood up and followed the other two at a distance.

* * *

Gobber was not entirely surprised to find only one of his two apprentices in the smithy.

That being said, he did resolve to have a lengthy discussion with Hiccup about the meaning of responsibility – and his actions at the arena.

"Why isn't Hiccup here?" he asked Saphira, who, while she was waiting for him, had taken the liberty of starting the forge.

"He's resting," said the girl, not looking at him.

"Resting?" asked Gobber raising an eyebrow in doubt.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"He was up all night."

"Doing what?"

Saphira paused.

"It's not my place to say."

The blacksmith narrowed his eyes. "What was he doing, lass?"

She let out an exasperated sigh. "Honestly, I don't really know. He just said he was tired and was going to rest."

Gobber studied her.

"You're a bad liar, lass," he stated. Saphira looked up at him with a glare.

"Look, you can believe me or no, but I don't know what else to tell you. Take it up with Hiccup later."

Gobber narrowed his eyes at the girl in front of him. She stared right back. They stood there for a moment, until Gobber grunted and turned away.

"I'll do that," he promised, still in doubt about the girl's claims.

"Fine," conceded Saphira. "Now what can I – "

"HEY SAPH!"

Gobber's gaze could have melted iron. The twins elected to ignore him. They walked over to their house guest and put an arm on each of her shoulders.

"Are you busy today?" asked Ruffnut.

"Sorry guys, now's not the best – "

"Great! Let's go," interrupted Tuffnut.

The twins started pushing Saphira to the door. The girl was saved from being kidnapped, however, when Gobber grabbed the back of one twin's shirt and hooked the other's.

"Now just what do you think you're doin'?" he asked.

"Saving a young girl from the horrors of hard work," said Tuff matter-of-factly.

Gobber rolled his eyes. "Get out of here, ya troublemakers!" he yelled as he tossed the pair out of the smithy. They landed on top of each other on the ground.

"Come on, Gobber!" complained Ruff.

"We just wanted to ask about Hiccup!" said Tuffnut.

Saphira poked her head out at them. "What about Hiccup?" she asked cautiously.

"How did he do that thing with the dragon?" asked Ruffnut immediately. "Please you gotta tell us!"

"It was so cool!" added Tuff.

"What makes you think I know?" asked Saphira, confused.

The twins looked at each other.

"Because… you're friends?" suggested Tuffnut.

"And you followed him out of the arena," pointed out Ruffnut. "Didn't he tell you anything?"

"Nope," said Saphira. "Sorry."

"Then do you know where he is now?" asked Tuff.

"Last I saw him he was heading for the docks."

The twins jumped to their feet, suddenly ginning. "Thanks, Saph!" they called in unison over their shoulders.

Saphira ducked back inside the smithy to find Gobber looking at her in suspicion.

"I take it back, lass," he said. "You're not a bad liar when you want to be."

Saphira only shrugged, her expression neutral. "I do what I have to to protect the people I care about," she stated simply.

Gobber squinted at her a moment longer before deciding to let it go for the time being.

For the next quarter of an hour, the two got into the swing of their work. Gobber was sure to give Saphira tasks that didn't stress her ankle too much. Occasionally the girl grumbled something about looking forward to being back to normal. Given that they were missing a pair of hands, Gobber couldn't help but agree.

It felt like they had hardly even started when Fishlegs and Astrid walked into the smithy. They looked around, then turned to Gobber and Saphira in confusion.

"Where's Hiccup?" asked Astrid.

"Not you too," complained Gobber without looking up.

"He's not here," said Saphira, also keeping her eyes on her task.

"Do you know where he went?" asked Fishlegs.

"Nope," said Saphira immediately.

Gobber glanced at her, then looked at the pair in the doorway. "Like she said," he told them. "But if Hiccup knows what's good for him he'll be around later." He went back to his work.

Astrid narrowed her eyes and was about to storm out, but Fishlegs stepped forward.

"Gobber… what Hiccup did… I've never read about anything like that."

Everyone in the room looked at the normally shy boy. He seemed to shrink under the attention, but continued.

"I…I think that you should probably ask Hiccup about it, and make sure it's not…"

Gobber had moved closer to Fishlegs while he was talking. As the boy trailed off, the man's gaze hardened.

"Not _what_ , Fishlegs?" he asked quietly.

The smithy went silent. The two girls glanced at each other instinctively. Both were intrigued by the exchanged, if a little surprised.

"…Nothing. S-sorry Gobber," mumbled Fishlegs after a moment. The blacksmith gave a satisfied nod. He glanced between the boy and Astrid.

"You two get out of here. We have work to do," said Gobber with a tone of finality. He went back to his anvil, where he was beating a short strip of metal.

The three teenagers exchanged glances, but Astrid and Fishlegs left rather quickly. Saphira studied Gobber for a minute before returning to her job.

The blacksmith's eyes were smoldering like the coals of the forge.

Outside, and out of Gobber's earshot, Astrid turned to Fishlegs.

"What was that all about?" she asked, genuinely confused.

"N-nothing… It's better if I don't say," he stated, his eyes shifting.

For a moment, Astrid considered pushing him for answers. As she studied the boy, however, she realized just how shaken he was. More often than not he was nervous anyway, but now he was ghostly pale and sweating profusely, and his whole body was shaking.

Fishlegs looked like he was ready to faint, puke, or both.

It made Astrid wonder even more about Hiccup's stunt in the ring. However, she decided to spare Fishlegs.

"Suit yourself," she told the large boy. He visibly sagged with relief. "I'm going to keep looking for Hiccup. Are you coming?"

"N-no, that's ok. I should probably get home and… yeah. Bye!" Fishlegs left hurriedly. Astrid stared after him for a moment before heading in the opposite direction.

Back at the smithy, Snotlout strutted into Saphira and Gobber's view. He didn't even bother to look around before shouting "Hiccup! Get your useless butt over here!"

He didn't notice Gobber's murderous gaze until it was too late.

The boy yelped as the blacksmith grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and the seat of his pants and literally threw him out.

Saphira, despite it all, barely controlled her laughter.

Snotlout, for his part, stood up with a grunt and wondered where it all went wrong.

* * *

Hiccup did indeed come to the smithy later.

Much, much later.

Gobber was hobbling out of the dark smithy when Hiccup walked up to him. Saphira was nowhere to be seen in what little sunlight remained.

"Hi Gobber," said Hiccup with a small, awkward smile. The blacksmith turned to him, a mixture of anger and concern on his face.

Hiccup winced, and his smirk disappeared.

"Where have you _been_?!" exclaimed Gobber, looking his apprentice up and down. Hiccup shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.

"I… I've been…" he sighed. "I fell asleep," he admitted.

Gobber raised his eyebrows. "You did?"

"Yeah," said the boy in embarrassment. "I'm sorry Gobber, I really am. I was up all night, and…" he trailed off, looking up at his mentor. The blacksmith seemed to be considering something as he stared at Hiccup.

"What were you doing last night?" he asked.

Hiccup froze. There was no way he could tell Gobber what he'd been up to. He tried to think of a believable excuse, but nothing came to mind.

"I… I can't say," he stammered. "I'm sorry Gobber, I would if I could, but I really can't this time, please you've gotta believe me, just trust me on this-"

Gobber cut him off with a gesture. His expression was something between anger and disappointment, though his eyes were closed. Hiccup felt the weight of guilt building in his stomach.

However, when Gobber opened his eyes, they were full of concern. "Hiccup, you're a teenage boy. I don't really expect you to tell me everything. However, when you start missin' work, then pull stunts like that stuff in the arena today…" He sighed. "Hiccup, I'm worried about ya. I just don't want you doin' somethin' you'll regret."

Hiccup looked down at his boots. They stood there silently for a moment. Gobber was the one to break the silence.

"I can't help but think that this is partially my fault, too," he said. Hiccup looked up in surprise. "I've barely given you any free-time, mostly because ye never asked for it," admitted the blacksmith. "Now, though, you've got Saphira, and what with dragon training and whatnot, it's no wonder you two are missing work or staying up all night or whatever." He sighed. "I've thought about it, and if you kids want to take every other day off, I'm sure I can manage somehow."

Hiccup jaw dropped. "Gobber… I don't know what to say…"

"That seems to be a recurring problem today," said Gobber drily. "Just promise me one thing, lad," he said seriously, stepping forward so that he was in Hiccup's personal space. "Whatever you did to that dragon today… and whatever you did last night… think long and hard about it. Some prices you just can't pay."

He stepped back, leaving a very confused Hiccup to stare back at him. Gobber's expression was neutral as he nodded at him.

"G'night, Hiccup," he said before turning and heading off into the night.

"G-goodnight, Gobber," responded Hiccup to his mentor's back. He stood looking after him for a minute, then headed back to his own home, his thoughts whirling.

Saphira stepped out into the moonlight in front of the blacksmith stall. She looked back and forth between the retreating forms, her brow furrowed, then entered the smithy.

* * *

 **A/N:**

Hello people! Man was this chapter a doozy to write. So many things… at one point I felt like:

 _So my flashlight's on, and stay up 'till dawn_

 _I got this headache and my life's on the line_

 _I felt like I won, but I wasn't done_

 _The nightmare repeats itself every time_

 _Got to keep my calm, and carry on_

 _Stay awake until the sun will shine_

 _But I'm not so strong, and they're not gone_

 _They're still out there to take what's left of mine_

~ _I Got No Time_ , TheLivingTombstone

As always feel free to review with constructive criticism and/or random thoughts!

My offer to Beta still stands.

Thanks to everyone who followed/favorited!

I own nothing but my OC.


	11. Chapter 11

_**IMPORTANT A/N, PLEASE READ**_

Ok people, here's the deal. I'm off to college in less than a week, and I'm going on a several-month hiatus afterwards. There will be one more chapter this week (before Sunday), but after that don't expect anything until _maybe_ Christmas. Don't think I'm giving up on the story, because that will only happen when I'm dead. I will still get alerted when you review, so please do that! I will likely reply.

I know I haven't been the most consistent with updates, and I'm sorry about that. But for those of you who have stuck with the story so far, thank you for doing so. It warms my heart to see people enjoying something I have worked hard on.

May peace, love, and all things good come to you. See ya around!

* * *

Fishlegs stood panting with the rest of the recruits as he watched Gobber throw the Gronkle back into its cage and lock the door.

"How many times do I have to tell you," grumbled the trainer as he turned to face his students. "Your most important piece of equipment is your shield! Not," he glared pointedly at Snotlout, "your mace. Or any other weapon!"

"Yes Gobber," chorused the class.

The teacher narrowed his eyes and growled under his breath as he stared down the teenagers. Fishlegs glanced at his classmates. Snotlout was, unsurprisingly, scowling. Astrid was looking as serious as usual. The twins were hardly paying attention. Saphira seemed exhausted, but otherwise calm. Hiccup just looked exasperated.

'What's wrong with him?' wondered Fishlegs. 'Did he try to tame the Gronkle and fail? No, I would have noticed.' Fishlegs had been keeping an eye on his one-time friend during the course of training, searching for anything out of the ordinary. He was relieved that nothing had happened this time, but part of him still demanded a logical explanation for the previous day.

"… grab your things and get out of here." Gobber's voice suddenly snapped Fishlegs out of his reverie. Around him the other teens began to file toward the exit, Hiccup and Saphira more quickly than the others.

"Oi! Not so fast!" Gobber quickly blocked the two off. "Hiccup, you were gone the entire day yesterday. You need to work."

Hiccup sighed. "Yeah, ok."

Gobber turned to Saphira.

"You have a choice, lass. You can-"

"I'll work today too," stated the girl without hesitation.

Gobber blinked, then shrugged. "Suit yourself." The trio walked out of the arena.

Astrid walked up next to Fishlegs. "Is something up?" she asked, noticing where his stare was directed.

The boy jumped. "O-oh, um, no, just… thinking about yesterday," he said.

Astrid looked toward the three retreating figures. "Hm. Me too." She glanced at Fishlegs. "Got any plans for today?"

The boy blinked at her in confusion. "Uh, sort of, I mean I was planning on doing some… research."

"At the scriptorium?"

"Yeah."

Astrid nodded. "Don't be surprised if I stop by later," she said.

"Uh, ok," said Fishlegs. This was strange; he and Astrid usually barely talked. "I'll, uh, see you later then." He walked toward the exit, silently contemplating his recent sociability.

A short while later, Fishlegs found himself in Berk's scriptorium. He stopped just inside the entrance and took a deep breath. The smell of ink and parchment, along with a faint whiff of leather and glue, greeted him. He loved coming here – it was the one place he could truly exercise his Odin-given mind and be himself.

The large boy shook his head. 'Now is not the time for sentiment, Fishlegs,' he scolded himself. 'You have work to do.'

He quickly scanned the room, looking for the caretaker. Seeing no sign, Fishlegs hesitantly called out, "Darrel?"

There was a thump, followed by an oath. From underneath a table in a far corner, a Viking appeared. He worn all the normal regalia of a man of the north, but in addition to the thick woolen clothes and various pieces of armor, he also sported a pair of spectacles, imported from a foreign land.

The fact that he daily wore the unbelievably expensive glasses was a testament to the man's ego. Though his pride _was_ somewhat to be expected; he was the most educated man on Berk, if not in the entire Archipelago. He was an excellent cartographer as well as a recorder of history and legends. His scriptorium carried everything from recipes to rituals.

For some reason, he had taken a liking to Fishlegs, even allowing the boy to study with him. Fishlegs liked to believe that it was because of his budding intellect.

Darrel smiled at the boy, rubbing the side of his head. "Fishlegs, m'boy! I haven't seen you around lately. I thought you were busy with dragon training."

"I am, sir, but something came up that I just have to research," responded the blond nerd. Darrel laughed.

"Ah, nothing can stop that curious mind of yours, eh? Tell me, what are you researching? I could use a challenge right about now; the work Stoick has me doing is absolutely mind-numbing." His eyes glinted eagerly.

"Uh, well…" Fishlegs hesitated. "It's… a bit unusual," he warned the man, before explaining the Zippleback incident. "I want to search for something – well, anything really – that would explain it," he finished.

"You mean anything besides _that_ ," corrected Darrel quietly, immediately catching the boy's train of thought. Fishlegs looked at the floor.

"Yeah," he mumbled. He looked up again when the man put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll look at the older manuscripts; I'm more familiar with them," Darrel said matter-of-factly. "You can look at the more recent works. I'd suggest anything by Bork the Bold." He smiled excitedly at Fishlegs, though there was uneasiness in his eyes. "We'll get to the bottom of this, don't you worry."

The boy smiled back, hoping to the gods that what his mentor said was true. "Thank you, sir."

* * *

Astrid pulled her axe out of the tree with a grunt. She idly twirled it in her hand as she got into position for what felt like the millionth time.

However, the athletic girl was far from bored. The familiar exercise of axe throwing helped her relax and think – and she had a lot to think about.

'Maybe it was something he was wearing… no, he's worn more or less the same outfit for years. Someone would have happened before, and the Gronkle and Nadder we worked with would have reacted too, if that were the case.'

She threw her axe again, this time towards a different tree about twenty feet away. It hit the trunk with a thwack.

'What if he did something only a Zippleback would react to?' the girl mused as she went to retrieve the weapon. 'Something specific that he figured out reading the book of dragons?' She shook her head. 'No; Darrel or Gobber – Hel, Fishlegs would have seen it.' Astrid put her hand on the axe handle, then paused. 'It's not impossible,' she reasoned. 'Hiccup's mind works differently than most people's. He might have seen something the rest of us missed.'

She tightened her grip and yanked. The blade came out of the pine tree with a crack. 'Maybe he found an obscure weakness and exploited it. But then, why wouldn't he share it with the rest of us? Something like that would have gotten him a decent amount of respect.'

Astrid caught herself staring absently at her axe. She shook her head and started to reposition herself again. 'It just doesn't make sense.' She raised her axe, then let out a frustrated sigh and let it drop to her side.

"This isn't getting me anywhere," she said aloud after a moment. All the speculating she had done had only led to more questions, none of which she could answer on her own. 'I need more information,' she thought. 'Which means I have to talk to Hiccup or Fishlegs. Preferably Hiccup.'

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind, however, than she remembered the previous day's pursuits. She grimaced. She didn't want to get on Gobber's bad side; it might affect her evaluation in the ring.

"Fishlegs it is, then," mumbled Astrid as she began to make her way towards the scriptorium.

* * *

Fishelegs sighed. "Still nothing," he muttered angrily, closing the book in front of him. He stretched with a yawn.

It was now the middle of the afternoon. Fishlegs had looked in everything from the dragon manual to an Herbology book, and Darrel had been pouring over texts that looked like collections of gibberish. Neither had found any useful information – or at least, none that they hadn't previously known.

After hours of translating manuscripts and reading between lines, Darrel had decided to take a break and suggested Fishlegs do the same. The boy had declined, claiming his work had been lighter. When Astrid walked in a few minutes later, however, he found himself wishing he'd taken Darrel's advice.

"Hi Fishlegs," the girl greeted him. "How's it going?"

"Um, not that great, I'm afraid," he admitted. "But don't worry; Darrel and I are going to keep looking."

"There was nothing in the Book of Dragons?" she asked, just to be sure.

"I looked at the Zippleback entry three times," said Fishlegs, pulling the book out from a pile and sliding it over, "along with the other Fear class dragons, just in case. I couldn't find anything useful."

Astrid opened the book to the correct page and skimmed the information. 'Nothing,' she thought angrily.

"Then how in Ymir's green Midgard did Hiccup do it?!" she exclaimed suddenly. Fishlegs flinched.

"I – I don't know," he said.

Astrid looked up sharply, remembering what he had said to Gobber. "Maybe you don't _know_ , but you have a theory, don't you?" she asked quietly.

Fishlegs's eyes started shifting around the room. "I, um, I don't know what you're talking ab-"

"Yesterday at the smithy, you tried to tell Gobber something, but he cut you off," insisted Astrid. "What was it?"

Fishlegs started stammering so badly Astrid could barely understand him. She felt a little guilty for pushing him, but she needed something, _anything_ that might give her a lead.

Astrid slammed her fist on the table. Fishlegs shut up, shaking a little. Astrid sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry for scaring you, Fishlegs. I'm just… I don't even know. Frustrated, I guess. But I need you to tell me what you think is going on here. _Please_."

Fishlegs looked at her, opening and closing his mouth a few times. Astrid could see the internal turmoil written on his face. However, just when she thought he was going to open up, fear closed him up again.

"I c-can't, Astrid. I'm sorry."

"You mean you won't," spat Astrid. Fishlegs shrank into his seat, and the girl cursed herself for her callousness. She took a deep breath and reminded herself who she was talking to: Fishlegs, the boy who jumped at his own shadow. The boy who had practically memorized the dragon manual. The boy she had not had a long conversation with since… ever.

'That's a missed opportunity,' she realized as she looked at the terrified teenager. 'I should probably talk to him more.'

Meanwhile, Fishlegs was avoiding her gaze. She sighed.

"I'm sorry, Fishlegs," she apologized again. He simply nodded. Astrid realized he was still shaking. She frowned.

"You're… really terrified to tell me, aren't you?" she realized, surprised. The boy was definitely shy, but this was a bit extreme, wasn't it?

Fishlegs met her eyes for the first time, his expression apologetic.

"Why?" asked Astrid, confused.

There was a long pause. The girl could see that Fishlegs _wanted_ to tell her something; perhaps he couldn't find the right words?

When the boy finally spoke, it was in a whisper.

"Because if I'm right, people could die."

Silence.

Astrid found herself speechless, uncertain on how to respond to or even process that. Fishlegs couldn't seem to find his voice either.

The quiet was broken by none other than Darrel, back from his break. He practically burst into the room, carrying two legs of mutton.

"Fishlegs, I brought you some –"

He stopped short at the sight of the two ashen-faced teens.

"…What is it?" he asked.

They hesitated.

Astrid wasn't sure what the man knew, though she was aware that he and Fishlegs were relatively close. However, she wasn't sure if they were close enough that Fishlegs would reveal to him what he had told her.

Fishlegs knew there would be trouble if what he suspected came to light. Darrel knew it too. Fishlegs did not want to see the disappointment on the man's face when Darrel found out what he had revealed to Astrid. Granted, he hadn't told her much, but Fishlegs _wanted_ to tell her the whole truth.

'It's better if she hears it from me, along with why we can't tell anyone,' he reasoned. 'But I can't tell her now, not with Darrel here…'

The boy looked between Darrel and the girl a few times before coming to a decision.

"I, um, Astrid came in looking for a book about the gods," he said. Astrid looked at him hard for a moment.

"Yes, I'm… looking for some, uh, storybooks. For the Larsons," she supplied.

Darrel looked between the two teens, his expression unreadable. "Storybooks, you say?"

"Yes," they said in unison.

"Specifically anything with Odin and Freya," added Fishlegs quickly.

"Hm, well I'm not sure how kid-friendly those stories are," mused Darrel, "but I can think of a few books to get Gustav started." He looked at Astrid. "They would be for him, right? He's the youngest in that household if my memory serves."

"Yes," said Astrid, making a mental note to stop by the Larson's later. She wasn't sure the scribe completely bought Fishlegs's on-the-fly excuse.

'Does Darrel not know?' she wondered as she watched the man pick out three thin volumes from the shelves. 'Thor, all of these mysteries are giving me a headache.'

"There you are, miss," said Darrel as he handed Astrid the books. She smiled at him.

"Thanks." She turned to Fishlegs. "See you around."

They nodded to her, and she exited the scriptorium.

Darrel waited about a minute, then rounded on Fishlegs.

"What the Hel do you think you're doing?!" he hissed.

Despite his harsh tone, Fishlegs wasn't frightened – in fact, he was slightly relieved that Darrel didn't seem as disappointed as angry. Also, when it came to intimidation, Astrid had Darrel beat.

"She suspected I was hiding something, and would probably figure it out even without the books," said Fishlegs matter-of-factly.

"That doesn't mean you have to help her!" exclaimed Darrel.

"I told her the risk before you came in," said Fishlegs.

Darrel closed his eyes and sighed. "Fishlegs, if this backfires and she talks, there will be blood."

"I know. That's why we have to keep searching for another explanation."

Darrel paused, then nodded wearily.

"Fine. Then let's get back to work. But don't blame me when this all goes to Muspelheim."

* * *

Snotlout had been wandering the village for the better part of the afternoon, looking for something to do.

True, he _could_ clean his house like his father had asked before leaving with Stoick, but he could also do that tomorrow.

Alternatively, he could do some extra training and hope that by the time Spitelout returned he was the best in the class, but that was a long shot at best.

He could also try to gain some favor with the current population of Berk. His father said if they got enough support, Stoick could be persuaded to make Snotlout his heir. He was the chief's nephew, after all.

'And at least a thousand times better than Hiccup,' he crowed inwardly, grinning. 'I mean, who would ever think that Hiccup the _Useless_ would actually become chief?'

His smile faded, however, when he remembered the Zippleback incident. In Snotlout's mind, that had been a display of power that threatened his goals. He had to overcome it, or at least match it – preferably before his father found out about it.

The only problem was that Snotlout had no idea how Hiccup had pulled it off. Just thinking about it made his head hurt.

"Ugh, maybe I should suck up to some people today," he muttered. "Just to get a leg up on him."

The more he considered that option, however, the more he just didn't want to do it. Helping people just involved so much _work_ and _effort_ , and half the time people never even thanked you for –

"Quit shoving and let me work!"

"Shh! Do you want us to get caught?!"

Snotlout stopped walking. He had managed to meander his way off the village's central path, and was now in front of someone's home.

A home that was being broken into by none other than the Thorston twins.

Tuffnut was crouched in front of the front door's keyhole, attempting to pick the lock. Ruffnut supervised, slowing leaning farther and farther towards him.

"Um, what do you think you're doing?" asked Snotlout loudly, causing the pair to jump up and spin around to face him.

"Nothing!" they said in unison.

Snotlout narrowed his eyes at them, then lifted his gaze to study the house they wanted to get into. His eyes widened when he realized whose it was.

"Why are you trying to break into Gobber's house?" he asked.

The twins glanced at each other, then back to Snotlout, but they didn't say anything.

"Ruff, Tuff," growled Snotlout, "spill."

They remained silent.

The dark-haired boy huffed and crossed his arms. "Fine, then I guess I'll just go over to the smithy and –"

"NO!" exclaimed Ruffnut and Tuffnut, simultaneously taking a step towards him.

"Please don't tell Gobber," pleaded Tuff.

"We just need to… check something." said Ruff. "That's all we can say."

"We're sworn to secrecy," added the brother.

"But," said the sister slowly, thinking as she spoke, "if you help us break in, we'll tell you more."

Tuffnut looked at his sister. "Uh, we will?"

Ruffnut studied Snotlout for a moment. "Why not? He's a troublemaker too, isn't he?"

"Hey!" protested the boy in question. The twins ignored him.

"Maybe, but he's… he's… what's the word? Ambitious! He's ambitious. He could blackmail us," pointed out Tuff.

Ruff rolled her eyes. "Did you forget the stuff we did last week? We have enough on him to get us a _year_ of favors.'

"Uh, what?" interjected Snotlout nervously. The twins glanced at him briefly before returning to their conversation.

"Ok, but what if Saph finds out?" pointed out Tuff.

" _Is_ Saph going to find out? I'm not gonna tell her, and neither are you, and we can just swear him to secrecy," countered Ruff, pointing at Snotlout. "Or, you know, blackmail him. Whatever works."

Tuff paused to consider. Snotlout just stared at the twins, his jaw practically on the floor.

'What the Hel is going on here?!' he thought angrily

Finally, Tuffnut nodded. "All right. Let's try it."

Ruffnut grinned and turned to the glaring Snotlout. "So how 'bout it, 'Lout? You want to help us break into Gobber's house?"

"Do I really have a choice?" he asked bitterly.

"No," chorused the twins.

Snotlout huffed. "Fine. Did you try the back door?"

Ruffnut and Tuffnut blinked.

Snotlout rolled his eyes. "Come on," he grumbled as he walked around to the back of the house.

As he suspected, it was open. Snotlout wasn't really surprised. Everyone knew everybody on Berk; so, if something happened to you, you usually knew who did it. Most people therefore figured there was no point in causing trouble. The twins, of course, were the exception. Unfortunately, that meant that they almost always the main suspects.

As they and Snotlout stepped into the house, the dark-haired boy couldn't help but wonder what the twins hoped to gain by antagonizing _Gobber_ of all people.

"So what are we doing here?" he asked as Ruff and Tuff began searching the blacksmith's home with practiced efficiency.

"Scouting," said Ruffnut as she inspected a group of shields on wall to the right.

"We're trying to find out what Gobber's afraid of," clarified Tuffnut, looking under the man's bed.

"So we can prank him," added Ruff.

"Oh," said Snotlout. "So you're _not_ stealing anything?"

"'Course not," scoffed the brother, moving towards the front of the house.

"That would only set the target on edge," said the sister, kneeling in front of a chest.

"Huh." Snotlout supposed that made some kind of sense. Although…

"How are you going to figure out Gobber's fears from his house?" he asked. "Wouldn't he get rid of anything that scares him?"

"Hey sis, come look at this!" called out Tuffnut from a weapons rack near the front door.

Both Snotlout and Ruffnut walked over to the boy.

"Check it out," he said, pointing to a figurine hung from one of the spears. It appeared to be a woman holding a horn like a cup.

"Now that is interesting," said Ruffnut thoughtfully. "Some of the shields had the same figure on them."

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Tuffnut with a grin. His sister smiled back.

"I believe I am."

"Mind clueing me in?" interjected Snotlout. The twins looked at each other, then began walking toward the back door.

"I think we've told you enough," said Ruff.

"We shouldn't spoil the surprise," agreed Tuff.

Snotlout glanced briefly at the figurine before following the brother and sister. "Does it have anything to do with me?" he asked, just to be sure.

"No," the siblings assured him in unison.

"Then I'm staying out of it," declared the boy as they all stepped outside. "Whatever crazy thing you're planning, I want no part in it."

The twins together turned to face him.

"Just so we're clear…" started Ruffnut,

"…you are aware we can make your life a living Hel…" continued Tuffnut,

"…if you tell anyone?" they finished together.

Snotlout swallowed nervously. "I didn't see anything," he promised as he closed Gobber's back door.

* * *

"All right, I think we've done enough damage for today. Let's close up shop."

Saphira and Hiccup simultaneously sighed in relief. It was already early evening; Hiccup had begun to wonder if Gobber would keep them there all night.

The three of them quickly cleaned up the smithy and darkened the forge. Soon Gobber was hobbling home. Hiccup was about to do the same, but Saphira tapped his arm.

"Hold on one second, I want to show you something," she said quietly, stepping back into the smithy and motioning him to follow. Hiccup arched an eyebrow as he entered the shop again.

She led him to the back of the smithy, near Hiccup's personal area. Hiccup could barely see her in the darkness, though he determined that she was looking for something in the corner.

"Aha!" she suddenly exclaimed softly. She moved back to Hiccup, holding something bulky in her arms.

"What's that?" asked Hiccup, squinting in the low light. He reached out to touch the thing, and discovered that it was made of leather.

"This," said Saphira proudly, "is a saddle for Toothless."

Hiccup looked at her, mouth agape. "No way," he breathed.

Saphira laughed. " _Yes_ way," she said. "If you're going to ride Toothless, you're gonna need something to keep your thighs from chaffing." She cringed. "Trust me."

"Wow…" Hiccup was still getting over his amazement. "Thanks Saphira."

"You're damn right thanks," she said in a teasing tone. "I stayed up most of last night making this." She paused. "And you're welcome."

Hiccup smiled, even though she couldn't see it. "You up for a trial flight tomorrow?" he asked.

"You bet." Hiccup could practically hear the grin in Saphira's voice.

* * *

 **A/N**

Clues! References! Accidentally creating and fixing plot holes! Where does it all lead?!

(I own nothing but my OCs)


	12. Chapter 12

Saphira winced as she rolled her shoulder.

"You ok?" asked Hiccup.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just sore," responded the girl. "The Nadder didn't hit me that hard."

"If you say so," he replied. "Speaking of sore, how's your ankle?"

"Took the bandage off last night," said Saphira as she readjusted her grip on the saddle in her hands. "Looked good as new."

"Goethe does good work," said Hiccup.

"Yup," the girl agreed.

They fell silent for a while, enjoying the late morning. Dragon training had ended a bit early, not that anyone complained (although Astrid did look a bit disappointed). Hiccup and Saphira had left the arena as quickly as was humanly possible.

They had stopped briefly at the smithy to grab the saddle before heading into the woods. Hiccup had also grabbed a long wire with a clasp on the end, which at the moment was coiled around his shoulder.

"You want to switch for a bit?" Hiccup offered, gesturing to the bulky leather contraption.

"If you want," Saphira responded, handing him the saddle. Hiccup slid the coiled cord off his shoulder and they traded.

"So are you excited?" she asked after a moment.

"To fly? Of course!" he replied. "Everyone dreams of flying at some point, right?"

"I guess," said the girl. She opened her mouth to say something else, then decided against it.

"What?" asked Hiccup

"Nothing."

"Saphira…"

"It's nothing serious," she assured him. "You'll probably find out soon enough anyway."

The boy looked at her dubiously, but didn't inquire further. He made a mental note to be on his guard during the test flight.

A short while later, they ducked under the stuck shield and entered the grotto. Toothless was sunning himself in the middle of the clearing, but looked up as the two teens walked toward him. Hiccup smiled.

"Hey, Toothless," he greeted. The dragon snorted in response, then his gaze locked onto Saphira.

The girl froze. Hiccup turned to her, confused. Her eyes were narrowed at the dragon.

"What's wrong? Aren't you, like, an ambassador for dragons?" he asked.

Toothless snorted in what seemed like surprise. Hiccup glanced between him and Saphira, thoroughly confused.

The girl's expression didn't change as she and the Night Fury stared each other down, but Toothless occasionally flicked his ear flaps. Suddenly, he arched his back and hissed. Hiccup jumped.

"Whoa! What the-"

He was cut off by Saphira, who had finally begun to speak. However, the language that came out of her mouth was unlike anything Hiccup had ever heard. It was an odd combination of hisses, roars, and growls - so harsh that his own throat began to itch. She paused, and Hiccup could only stare as she walked slowly up to Toothless. Then she said something else and held up her hand.

The dragon looked at the hand, then back at Saphira's unflinching gaze. Without closing his eyes, he briefly touched his snout to her outstretched fingers. They stared at each other a short while longer, then Toothless flicked his ear flaps and turned to Hiccup, pupils calm and wide again.

To say Hiccup was confused would be an understatement. When Saphira looked at him, he tried to choke out one of his many questions, but it came out as more of a "Hungh?!"

Saphira gave him a small, apologetic smile. "Yeah, um… that. Would it help if I said that I wasn't expecting it either?"

Hiccup shook his head back and forth. "No, I – just – um – wow. Ok." He took a deep breath.

"Um, sounds. Out of your mouth. What, exactly… What language was that?"

Saphira chuckled. "It, uh, was the language of the dragons. To my knowledge there isn't a Norse word for it. Dragons can't speak Norse, though some understand it."

"Language of the dragons?"

"Yup."

"So… like… Dragonese?"

Saphira smirked. "Sure, that works."

Next to her, Toothless snorted and went back to sunning himself.

Hiccup considered Saphira's answer for a moment. "Do all dragons speak it?" he asked.

"It's… a bit more complicated than that," she responded. "All dragons are capable of speaking it, yes, but many prefer to write it on whatever's available." She paused. "I've even heard that some _think_ to each other."

Hiccup's eyes widened. "Seriously?"

Saphira shrugged. "It's apparently really rare, if it's even true."

"Cool," said Hiccup in awe. "How did you learn to speak it?"

She hesitated.

"My mom and sister taught me," she said.

"…Oh," replied Hiccup brilliantly.

'Right, dead mom and missing sister. Whoops,' he thought. "Do you think you could, um, teach me one day?" he asked, trying to lighten the mood again.

Saphira smiled at him. "Sure."

From beside them, Toothless suddenly let out a call. Saphira rolled her eyes. Hiccup raised an eyebrow.

"Did he say something just now?" he asked.

"He's asking why we're interrupting his beauty rest," she said teasingly, glancing at the dragon. Toothless lifted his head and narrowed his eyes at her with a snort.

"Oh! Duh, I can't believe I almost forgot," Hiccup said, starting to grin. Toothless turned to him, pupils widening in curiosity.

"How 'bout it, bud? Want to give flight another try?" asked Hiccup, holding up the saddle with a smile.

The dragon stood up, lifting his nose in an attempt to smell the contraption. As soon as Hiccup took a step forward, however, Toothless crouched down in a playful stance before springing away with a smile of his own.

"Hey!" complained Hiccup, running after him.

Saphira just laughed as the boy chased the dragon around the grotto.

Eventually, Hiccup did manage to convince Toothless to sit still, though the dragon didn't look too happy about it and kept making noises of obvious complaint.

Hiccup sighed as he tightened the straps. "I don't get it," he said to Saphira. "What's he whining about? We're trying to help him fly!"

"He knows that," Saphira assured him. "He just doesn't see how that thing will help."

The dragon growled. "Ugly?!" the girl exclaimed indignantly.

"What?" asked Hiccup, tying off the last strap.

"He thinks the saddle's ugly," clarified Saphira in disbelief. "I'll have you know I spent all night working on that, thank you very much!" she told Toothless. "I even snuck in here to get measurements – _and_ I made sure your precious "beauty rest" wasn't disturbed!"

The dragon huffed, and Hiccup rolled his eyes at his friends' antics as he connected the clasped end of his cable to Toothless's prosthetic.

"Ok, I think we're all set," he said, straightening. Saphira and Toothless both looked dubiously at the cord in Hiccup's hand, but neither said anything.

"It'll work," Hiccup assured them before jumping onto Toothless's back with a grunt. He grinned as he looked down at Saphira's neutral expression. "Besides, it's just a test flight. If something _does_ go wrong, we'll fix it for next time."

Saphira just shrugged and stepped back. Hiccup looked down and to the side of Toothless's head.

"You ready?"

In response, the dragon spread his wings and took off. Hiccup felt a rush of exhilaration and tightly gripped the front of the saddle with one hand, while the other clenched the cord connected to the tail.

After the initial burst of excitement lessened, Hiccup glanced back at the tail, just to make sure the cable hadn't slipped off. He turned to face forward again.

'Ok,' he thought with a look of determination. 'Here we go.'

He yanked the wire forwards and up.

Toothless immediately felt the aerodynamic change. He had a brief moment to widen his eyes, then he banked sharply to the left with a cry.

Hiccup, who had not been expecting the sharp turn at all, fell off of Toothless and into the water.

From the shore, Saphira laughed.

Hiccup climbed, sputtering and shivering, out of the water while Toothless managed to land roughly on his feet.

The boy stalked, dripping wet, up to the grinning Saphira.

"Y-you kn-knew, didn't you?" he said through chattering teeth. "Y-you _knew_ s-something like th-this would h-happen."

"I'm no prophet, Hiccup," she responded lightly. "But I did suspect that you would crash. A loose cable like that is just too unpredictable."

"And you d-didn't _say_ anything?!" the boy exclaimed. Toothless came up beside him and growled his agreement.

Saphira just smiled even more. "I wouldn't have had anything to look forward to, then," she said.

Hiccup and Toothless just glared at her. She sighed. "Ok yeah, I probably should have said something. But come on, the look on your faces was _priceless_!" She laughed again. Toothless swept his tail so that it wacked her on the head.

"Ow! Hey, you did you didn't say anything either!" The dragon huffed and looked away. Saphira rolled her eyes. "Ok, fine, I won't do it again," she promised. "Thor, just take the fun out of everything, why don't you?"

Hiccup shivered. "Th-that wasn't f-fun! I-if you can h-help Toothless f-fly, you sh-should!"

Saphira's expression lost its remaining mirth as she nodded. "Don't worry, I will. But you can't expect me to know everything," she pointed out. "I haven't had to teach anyone how to operate a dragon tail before – all I know are the _basics_ of flight."

Hiccup nodded. "Good enough." Toothless flicked his ears. Saphira nodded back.

"Ok then. Uh, to make it up to you, I can try to teach you some of the conceptual stuff on the way back to the village?" she said questioningly.

"W-we're leaving?"

"You should probably change into something dry before you get sick."

'That's probably a good idea,' thought the still shivering boy. "G-guess that means I'll see you the day after t-tomorrow, bud," he told the dragon. "I, um, n-need to take the saddle off now."

Toothless let out a call of pure joy, and Hiccup and Saphira rolled their eyes. As Hiccup undid the straps with slightly shaking hands, the dragon growled something else.

"Toothless wants to know if next time you can get him some fish," Saphira translated.

"Oh, um, s-sure," said Hiccup. "Now that I th-think about it, I-I probably should have b-brought some today." The boy stopped what he was doing as he suddenly remembered something. "Wait a s-second. W-where's the b-basket from last t-time?" He scanned the grotto. "Where d-did it go?"

"Oh, I brought it back to the village last night," Saphira told him. "I noticed it while I was getting measurement for the saddle."

"Oh, ok."

"By the way, I've been meaning to ask you about the shield stuck in the rocks," Saphira commented.

"I got it stuck there on accident," saidHiccup as he took the saddle off Toothless's back. The dragon shook himself, then started itching where the straps had been.

"Huh."

"It's w-whatever. We might as well l-leave it," said Hiccup as he began absentmindedly scratching Toothless.

Saphira shrugged. "I guess so." She glanced at the two boys. "We should probably get going."

Hiccup sighed and turned to the dragon. "See you l-later, Toothless. I promise I'll bring fish n-next time – and no eels!"

Toothless cooed happily in response. Hiccup smiled then started walking toward Saphira, who simply waved at the dragon before she and Hiccup left the grotto.

* * *

Saphira and Hiccup parted ways after leaving the forest. Hiccup went back home, while Saphira opted to wander the village. The twins found her in the plaza.

"Hey Saph!" they greeter her in unison.

"Hey guys," she returned with a smile. "What's up?"

Ruff and Tuff glanced around them suspiciously.

"We should find someplace more private," whispered Ruffnut.

Saphira arched an eyebrow but nodded. Each of the twins grabbed one of her hands and practically dragged her to a farm east of the village. Once they were behind a shed with nothing but sheep for company, Ruff and Tuff released the other girl.

"Ok, so what's up?" Saphira asked again softly.

"We did some renaissance yesterday-" started Tuffnut.

"He means reconnaissance," clarified Ruffnut.

"-and we found something interesting on our target," finished the brother with a grin.

"You got something on Gobber?" asked Saphira excitedly. "What?"

"Well," said the sister with a smile to match her brother's, "we found evidence that our dear blacksmith is extremely superstitious."

Saphira considered that for a moment. "Superstitious how?" she asked.

"He's got Valkyries all over his stuff, for one thing" said Tuff.

"And he's always swearing by the gods and stuff under his breath," added Ruff. "Like, all the time."

"I once saw him complaining to someone about trolls stealing his socks," said Tuff. He laughed. "Which is ridiculous. Everyone knows trolls always go for mead tankards."

"Wait wait wait," interrupted Saph. "I've only heard a few of the stories. Are you sure about this?" she asked.

"Yes," said the twins chorused confidently.

"Right." She thought for a minute. "I assume you guys already have a few ideas?"

It wasn't really a question. The twins just grinned.

"Ok. I think you two should start planning on your own. I'm not as familiar with all the stories, so it sounds like I have quite a bit of studying to do." She sighed. "Is there a scriptorium on Berk by any chance?" she asked despondently.

The twins looked at each other.

"Actually…" began Tuff.

"Yeah," said Ruff.

"Not that we ever go there," they both finished hurriedly.

* * *

It didn't take long for Hiccup to dry off and change into clean pants and another green tunic. However, he didn't own another vest or pair of boots, so was forced to walk barefoot to hang his wet clothes outside.

Afterwards, he didn't feel like going back into the house. It was too nice of a day. Instead, he walked a little ways down the hill, enjoying the warmth of the sun on the otherwise chilly afternoon. He sat down in the soft grass and closed his eyes.

"Hiccup?"

He sighed. 'Seriously? Can't I get one moment of nice peace and-'

His train of thought fizzled immediately when he cracked open an eye to see who was talking to him.

Astrid watched with her arms crossed as Hiccup scrambled to his feet.

"A-Astrid! What – um, how are you doing? Today?" he stammered.

"I could be better," responded the girl. "Why are you barefoot? It's cold outside."

"Well, um, you see, uh…" he trailed off, trying to get his suddenly blank mind under control. "I… stepped in… yak dung."

'Oh, that's brilliant, Hiccup!' he scolded himself sarcastically. 'Not dumb or disgusting at _all_!'

Astrid just shrugged. "Happens to the best of us," she said.

Hiccup gave her an awkward smile. To his surprise she glared in response.

"Ok, let's cut the pleantries," she said sharply. Hiccup flinched. "Hiccup, I want to know how you caged that Zippleback."

'Uh oh,' Hiccup thought as he gulped.

"Oh, th-that," he stammered, though it had nothing to do with the chill. There was a heavy pause where neither teen said anything.

"Look, Hiccup," Astrid sighed. Her voice had suddenly lost its edge. She sounded weary. "I've been trying to figure it out on my own for the past day and a half, but I… I can't. And every time I've tried to find you and ask you, you were either at work, or you disappeared into thin air. So now that I've finally found you, please just give me a straight answer. How did you do it?"

She looked at him expectantly, and Hiccup knew what he was going to do before even really deciding it. 'This is a really bad idea,' he thought even as he opened his mouth.

"I… it was an eel," he confessed, then shut his mouth before he could say something incriminating.

"An eel," repeated the girl dubiously.

Hiccup nodded. "Dragons don't like eels," he stated, hoping she would drop the subject. He had no such luck.

"Did you read that somewhere?" Astrid asked.

"N-no, I, um, figured it out. During the last dragon raid," Hiccup lied. He felt like he was going to throw up.

"And you didn't share this information with anyone?" Astrid questioned, putting her hands on her hips.

"Uh, no…?" He started fidgeting.

"Why?"

"Well, it's not like anyone would have believed me anyway!" he snapped, his nerves getting the better of him.

Astrid's eyes widened. Hiccup immediately regretted saying anything.

"Sorry, um… I-I gotta go," he sputtered before racing up the hill back to his house. He slammed the door behind him, leaned against it and sank to the floor. He put his head in his knees and groaned.

"What is wrong with me?" he wondered aloud.

On the hill, Astrid stared after Hiccup, repeating his outburst in her mind. She wanted to think that it wasn't a valid excuse, but she couldn't help but think he had a point.

'Would _I_ have believed him?' she asked herself.

Not likely.

Now, however…

'I need to talk to Fishlegs,' she decided. She turned and headed for the scriptorium.

* * *

Fishlegs had decided to take the day easy after dragon training. Since noon he had been lounging in the scriptorium, reading various books that caught his eye, and occasionally writing his thoughts in a journal.

'No mysteries today,' he promised himself. 'No life-threatening secrets. Just me and my books.'

And perhaps it would have gone that way, if Saphira had not come through the door.

Fishlegs looked up at her footsteps, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "Hey, Saphira," he greeted her. "What are you doing here?"

"Hi Fishlegs. I'm here hunting Scaldrons," she said.

Fishlegs blinked. "Um…"

Saphira smirked. "Sarcasm. I'm actually here for some religious stories. You know, Valkyries and trolls and the like."

Fishlegs's eyes widened. "Um, o-ok. C-can I ask why?"

'Please don't have anything to do with that,' he thought. 'I _really_ don't want to do this today.'

"It's a secret," Saphira said with a smile and a wink.

Fishlegs looked at her, confused. Her words alone would have scared the Hel out of him, if not for her body language. Despite himself, he was now curious.

"A-are you sure you can't tell me?" he asked.

Saphira considered him for a moment.

"Sorry, Fishlegs, but it's need-to-know. You're too… honest to get involved. So, if you could just point me in the right direction…"

Fishlegs connected the dots in under a second. "It has something to do with the twins, doesn't it?" he said. It wasn't really a question.

Saphira looked at him in surprise. "How'd you guess?" she asked.

"They're always up to something," he said with a sigh. "And since you've been living with them, well, it was inevitable that you would either become their ally or their victim."

"…Will you still help me?" she questioned.

Fishlegs nodded resignedly. "You'd find it eventually anyway. Follow me."

He led her past various shelves, covered in book of every size and color.

"So what are you looking for, specifically?" he asked as they walked.

"Well, I guess anything with Valkyries would be good," the girl mused. "Oh, and also whatever you have on trolls!"

"Trolls? Oh, you mean giants," the boy said as he began pulling books off of their shelves.

"Is there a difference?" asked Saphira.

"Not really. Different dialects sometimes use different words for the same thing, that's all."

"You seem like you know what you're talking about."

"Oh, um, I sometimes work with Darrel – he's the caretaker of the scriptorium. He's taught me a lot."

"Is he here now?"

"Probably; he spends a lot of time in his room here, studying." He placed a stack of books in Saphira's hands. "There, that should get you started. Astrid borrowed a couple, so…" he trailed off and looked at something behind Saphira. The girl turned to see a particular blond shield-maiden walking into the building, looking thoughtful.

"Fishlegs?" she called. "You in here?"

Saphira and Fishlegs walked to the front of the scriptorium.

"Oh, hi Saphira," said Astrid.

"Hey. What brings you here?" the other girl asked.

"I just needed to talk to Fishlegs and…" she looked at some of the titles in Saphira's hands and turned to Fishlegs. "Wait, did you… "

"No! No," Fishlegs denied nervously. He glanced at Saphira, gulped, then turned back to Astrid. "Did you, um, look at those books I gave you, by any chance?" he squeaked.

By this time, it was obvious to both girls that something was up. They narrowed their eyes at the boy.

"All right," said Saphira, dropping her books on a nearby table with a thud. "What exactly is going on here?"

Astrid and Fishlegs turned to Saphira in surprise at her serious tone.

"Um, w-well…" Fishlegs stammered.

"We've been trying to figure out how Hiccup caged the Zippleback," Astrid told her. She looked back at Fishlegs. "Which, by the way, is what I came here to talk to you about. I just talked to Hiccup; he said it was an eel."

"He did?" asked Saphira and Fishlegs at the same time. Astrid narrowed her eyes at the other girl.

"Did you know?" she asked.

"He told me after the fact," said Saphira. "Asked me not to share."

"Why would he…" Astrid mumbled. She shook her head. "Whatever."

"So if you were trying to figure out the Zippleback incident, what's the deal with the religious stories?" asked Saphira.

"Fishlegs had some kind of theory involving them about the incident," said Astrid. "I don't know what it was, just that it's apparently life-or-death."

"Seriously?" asked Saphira in surprise, turning to Fishlegs, who was looking very uncomfortable.

"Yup, continued Astrid. "Something to do with Freya and-"

"O-ok, th-that's en-enough!" Fishlegs stammered loudly, sweat glistening on his brow. He looked fearfully at Saphira. "L-look, i-it was a l-long shot a-anyway. W-we can t-test th-the eel th-thing, and i-if that w-works, th-that'll b-be the end of i-it. J-just forget y-you heard a-anything," Fishlegs pleaded Saphira.

The girl looked at him in shock. She hadn't know anyone could be that nervous.

"Y-yeah, sure Fishlegs," she said, startled. She picked up her books and started toward the door, not wanting to upset the boy further. "Bye Astrid. See you guys at dragon training." She walked out, puzzling over what had just happened.

Astrid hadn't taken her eyes off of Fishlegs during his entire tirade. 'Ok,' she thought. 'Something else is definitely up. And there is no way I'm letting it go.' However, she knew Fishlegs wouldn't give her any more information – the poor boy already thought his life was in danger.

'I'll just have to play it cool and figure it out on my own,' she decided. 'But for now…'

"So Fishlegs," she addressed the still slightly trembling blond. "How are we going to test that eel theory?"

"Hold on," said the boy softly, in between deep breaths. "I just… need a minute."

"Oh…Sure. I'll wait outside," the girl responded, wincing at her callousness as she realized just how upset Fishlegs was. She turned toward the door. "Let me know if you need anything."

* * *

 **A/N**

So yeah, last chapter for a while. I'm sorry I left things unresolved, but I promise that this is not where it ends. Not by a long shot.

Reminder: this story is going on hiatus until Christmas. If you need something to fill the void I suggest "The Dragon King" by Threni on this website, it's _really_ good.

Peace and love to you all! Please follow, favorite, and review (and share with people if you feel like it)!

I own nothing but my OC.


	13. Chapter 13

**_A/N: PLEASE READ_**

 ** _YES EVEN IF YOU GOT THE LAST UPDATE_**

 ** _I KNOW IT'S LONG BUT PLEASE_**

MERRY (BELATED) CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

FIRST: **I fixed up all of the other chapters**. Not anything plot related, but I think they read a little bit better now.

SECOND: **disclaimer:** I own nothing except my OC, and I got all of my information for that one part which you'll read from this website: norse - mythology. org (without spaces; Doc Manager does not like urls). Please note that I am only using all this stuff as inspiration; if something isn't exactly accurate, it's because it doesn't quite fit with the story. If you're looking for something completely faithful to Norse myth, you're in the wrong place.

THIRD: **I know I'm late** on this, but the chapter is extra long (just over 5k words) and I'm planning on updating more this semester. One thousand apologies from the bottom of my heart, really!

******FOURTH: **I want to talk about reviews**.******

#1: Please, pretty please, review. I can't tell if I'm doing good or bad unless you tell me.

#2: I like constructive criticism. I like compliments. I like jokes and a healthy dose of sarcasm. I like over-the-top reactions, good or bad. I LOVE non-sarcastic theories.

#3: I don't like comments that start shipping wars. I don't like when people don't do their research. I don't like people who act like they know everything despite not having done any research. I don't like comments that are purposefully mean, written in anger, and/or written with no forethought.

#4: If you want to ask me personally about specifics regarding _Long Time Coming_ , or about something that has nothing to do with this particular story, I would prefer if you PM'd me.

Good? Good.

Enjoy!

* * *

When Fishlegs came out of the scriptorium, the sun had just touched the horizon. Astrid was leaning against the side of the building, fingering her axe's blade absentmindedly, deep in thought.

Fishlegs cleared his throat.

Astrid didn't jump, per say, but her hand did immediately fly to her axe's handle. She blinked a few times before recognizing Fishlegs, then sighed.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Yeah."

It didn't take the pair long to procure an eel and make their way to the arena. They barely talked to each other on the way, which was fine with Fishlegs. Talking led to questions that he didn't want to answer. But hopefully those questions would all go away in the next few minutes, and everything would just go back to normal.

Astrid, for her part, just hoped that she would get some solid answers. She wasn't so cruel as to try to wrangle them out of Fishlegs – not yet, at least. She was just getting so tired of secrets and half-truths; if she didn't get a straight answer soon… she didn't know what she would do. She certainly wouldn't sit around doing nothing.

By the time Astrid and Fishlegs reached the arena, the sun had set. As they approached the ring, Astrid suddenly slowed her pace. Fishlegs looked at her quizzically.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"There's supposed to be a guard here," responded Astrid, her eyes sweeping the surrounding area. Suddenly her eyes widened. "Oh my gods!"

She ran over to where the aforementioned guard was knocked out, poorly hidden behind a couple of wooden crates. Astrid quickly checked his breathing and pulse, and sighed in relief when she found them normal. Then she stood and turned toward the arena, drawing her axe with an angry look in her eye.

Fishlegs watched her creep silently around the chain dome, opting to stay as far away from the potential danger. Though the tense silence he could hear someone hitting something with a weapon, presumably from inside the arena.

Astrid peered into the training ring, which was poorly lit by a couple of torches. Someone had set up training dummies, and a shadowy figure was currently hacking them into oblivion with what seemed to be… a mace?

"Oh for the love of Thor," muttered Astrid, standing up straight and swinging herself through the chains down into the arena. Axe still in hand, she snuck up behind the figure and tapped him on the shoulder.

Snotlout spun around with a high-pitched scream and blindly attacked Astrid. She casually blocked his strike, then kicked him in the stomach. Snotlout fell backwards onto his butt with an oof.

"What are you doing here?!" he asked angrily though teeth gritted in pain.

Astrid ignored him and instead called to her partner in crime.

"Come on, Fishlegs. It's just Snotlout."

"What? Fish-face is here too?" asked Snotlout in confusion as he stood up. "What is going on?"

"Why don't you tell us why _you're_ here?" demanded Astrid as Fishlegs cautiously entered the arena from the normal entrance. " _And_ why you felt it necessary to knock out the guard."

Snotlout sneered and opened his mouth, but then closed it again. He pursed his lips for a moment, then let out a resigned growl.

"Fine. I just wanted to get some extra practice, but the guard wouldn't let me in. Said it was "too dangerous", as if I couldn't handle myself." He chuckled arrogantly at that last part. "So, I bonked him on the head. Don't worry, he's fine. Probably. He's just lucky I wasn't an actual dragon thief or something – he wouldn't have stood a chance."

Astrid twirled her axe and glared at Snotlout. "He's my cousin."

Snotlout gulped.

Fishlegs glanced nervously between the two warriors and decided a distraction was needed. "So, um, Astrid, do you want to get started or…"

Snotlout fearful gaze turned to one of confusion as he tore it away from Astrid. "Wait, get started with what? Why are you guys even here?"

Fishlegs shared a glance with Astrid, who shrugged. The blonde boy took a breath.

"We think we might have figured out how Hiccup caged the Zippleback."

It took Snotlout a moment to process that. Once it sunk in, his response was immediate.

"Show me."

Astrid and Fishlegs shared another glance. This time Fishlegs shrugged, while Astrid rolled her eyes.

"Fine," said the shield maiden. She smiled as an idea suddenly came to her. "You can be the bait."

"The what now?"

"We have to let the Zippleback out of its cage to test the theory," explained Fishlegs, pulling the eel out of his vest. Snotlout recoiled in disgust, but Fishlegs chose to ignore him. "We need someone to hold the eel in front of the dragon," he continued.

"Uh, no," said Snotlout blatantly, looking at the other boy with wide eyes.

"Just do it, Snotlout," snapped Astrid. "If you're going to stick around, you might as well help."

Snotlout opened his mouth to respond, but Astrid didn't give him the chance. "Come on Fishlegs, I'll need your help to unlock the cage," she said as she made to exit the arena.

Fishlegs hesitated just a moment before tossing the eel in Snotlout's direction and hurrying after Astrid.

Snotlout sighed, then picked up the eel with his thumb and forefinger. His nose wrinkled in disgust.

"Hey, so what if this doesn't work?" he asked as the two other teens made their way to the cage door pulley system. "How are you going to cage the dragon?"

Fishlegs and Astrid paused.

"It'll work," the boy blurted after a brief moment. Both Astrid and Snotlout stared at him. Fishlegs ignored their gazes and continued on his way.

"It has to work," he muttered under his breath.

Astrid hesitated another second before following him. Snotlout just grumbled quietly and gripped his mace nervously.

Soon enough, Astrid and Fishlegs managed to lift the huge wooden bar that sealed the Zippleback cage. Snotlout stood at the ready, eel held out in front of him, and waited for the explosion of gas.

It didn't come.

All three teenagers waited tersely for a few minutes, sure that the dragon would bolt out of its cage at any moment. However, after about five minutes, they realized that nothing was going to happen.

"Ugh, what gives?!" shouted Snotlout, stomping toward the cage doors.

"I'm not sure," said Astrid, once again flinging herself into the ring. She drew her axe and, after a moment's hesitation, pounded it against the cage doors. Snotlout rolled his eyes.

"What, you think it's going to come out if we ask nicely?" he asked. Astrid shot him a look.

Suddenly, a loud hissing sound came from inside the cage. All three teenagers stepped back – including Fishlegs, who wasn't even in the ring. Astrid and Snotlout stood with weapons at the ready several yards from the cage as the doors opened.

From the darkness within, something flew out and landed on the other side of the arena. Astrid and Snotlout briefly glanced at each other, confused, but their attention was drawn back to the cage as the Zippleback stepped out into the moonlight.

It looked around the arena, hissing quietly and moving slowly. Astrid and Snotlout gripped their weapons tighter.

When the dragon's gaze finally landed on them, it roared. Its wings fanned out and it stretched to twice its height – but it did not attack. Astrid and Snotlout stared down the left and right heads respectively.

"Snotlout." Astrid called to the boy in a loud whisper. "Snotlout!"

"Yeah?" he responded quietly. Neither teen took their eyes off the dragon.

"It's now or never," said Astrid.

"What?"

"The eel, you idiot!"

"Oh, right." He shifted his mace to his left hand, then pulled the eel out from under his vest.

The Zippleback responded immediately. It started to charge Snotlout, but stopped abruptly, nostrils flared. It seemed to be stuck between wanting to maul the teenage boy, and getting as far away from the eel as possible. Snotlout slowly approached the dragon, driving it back into its cage.

"Ha, look at that!" he said with a grin. "It's working!"

The dragon tried to lunge at him.

"Woah!"

"Snotlout, don't let your guard down!"

"Relax ba… Astrid. I got this."

Astrid kept her distance, watching the boy and the dragon. It was almost an exact recreation of what Hiccup had done; there could be no denying it. She looked up at Fishlegs, who had his eyes on the scene with a look of pure, unfiltered relief on his face. Astrid searched for that same feeling within herself, but came up empty.

'What's wrong with me?' she wondered. 'I have the evidence right in front of me – this is how Hiccup did it. So why am I so unsatisfied? Did I expect something more… I don't know, interesting?'

She knew that wasn't it. The fact that Hiccup had found this weakness in dragons at all was a small miracle, and using it during dragon training required an amount of practicality that Astrid didn't think Hiccup possessed.

Astrid just couldn't shake the feeling that something was… off.

She was distracted from her thoughts by the sound of the cage doors closing. She blinked and saw Snotlout looking at her triumphantly, still holding the eel.

"Astrid!" She looked up at Fishlegs. "I need your help to lock the cage."

"Right," she responded, snapping into action. "Snotlout, give me a boost."

With Snotlout's help Astrid climbed up and out of the arena. The cage door locked with a boom. Astrid and Fishlegs rejoined Snotlout in the ring.

"Well, I think that pretty much settles it," said Fishlegs happily. "I think I'm about ready to call it a night."

"Hold on Fishlegs," said Astrid. "I can't really explain it, but I have a feeling that something's not right."

"Well, it seems simple enough to me," said Snotlout. "Hiccup somehow found out about the eel thing, then used it to show everyone up in class. It's what I would have done."

"But that's just it, Snotlout!" said Astrid sharply. "Hiccup _isn't you_!"

"Astrid, can't we just let this go?" pleaded Fishlegs, suddenly sounding tired. "We know how he did it – isn't that enough?"

"For you, maybe," said Astrid. "But I'm surprised, Fishlegs. There's something else going on here – I know it. You probably know it too, but you won't let yourself admit it because you're scared of… something."

Snotlout scoffed. "What _isn't_ he scared of?"

The others ignored him.

"Yes, Astrid, I am scared!" shouted Fishlegs. "But for the first time since this began I have a reason not to be, so by Thor I will take it!"

Astrid and Snotlout stood in shocked silence. Fishlegs was angrier than they had ever seen him. He was even _glaring_ at them.

And despite everything, this only made Astrid more curious as to why.

"Fishlegs…" she began. He cut her off.

"No! You know what, Astrid? I'm done. I want nothing to do with this anymore." He started to leave the arena. "If you have any more questions, _don't_ come to me."

Astrid and Snotlout watched the boy leave. As he walked out, he passed the guard, who had finally regained consciousness.

The guard looked back at Fishlegs in confusion, then walked over to the other two teens.

"Astrid? What's going on? Why are you here?" he squinted at Snotlout. "And isn't that the guy who knocked me out?"

Astrid glanced once more at Fishleg's retreating form, then focused on her cousin, who was looking at her expectantly.

"We were just getting some extra training in," she said, telling herself that it wasn't a _complete_ lie. "As for Snotlout, feel free to punch him or something."

"Hey!"

The guard said nothing; instead, he put a hand to his head with a groan. Astrid gave Snotlout a withering glare. He flinched.

"S-sorry," he mumbled. Astrid rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, we should probably get going. I'll see you around, ok?" Astrid put a hand on her cousin's shoulder.

"Yeah," he responded curtly through gritted teeth. "Just get out of here before you give me even more of a headache."

* * *

The next day dawned dismal and gray. Stoick and his fleet had regrouped on a nearby island after their last attempt to pierce the mists. Their camp was oddly quiet, the mood dampened by the sound of a chisel.

On the edge of a nearby cliff, Stoick watched as one of his men carved another name into a large rock.

It marked the eighteenth person to die on the campaign.

In the earlier days of the war, those might have been considered light losses. But now, Berk's population had dwindled so much that even one casualty could impact the entire island. Stoick's cynical side said that there were now eighteen fewer mouths to feed. His logic told him that there were now eighteen fewer people bringing fish in. His heart reminded him that he would have to talk to eighteen families when he returned to Berk.

Since arriving at their current location, Stoick had begun to consider sailing home.

The man with the chisel finished his work and stood. He paused for a moment, considering the list of names. When he turned, he briefly cast his hardened gaze upon the chief and nodded sharply. Stoick returned the gesture, and the man began walking back to the camp.

Stoick stood upon the cliff a while longer, looking at the names etched into the rock.

Those names would be there longer than the people they represented had been alive.

"Chief?"

Stoick was startled out of his thoughts, and suddenly realized that it had begun to rain. He turned and saw Spitelout standing behind him, arms crossed.

"What is it?" Stoick asked.

Spitelout didn't answer him. Instead he walked to stand next to Stoick, observing the names on the rock.

"Eighteen, eh?"

"Eighteen," Stoick confirmed quietly.

They stood quietly for a moment, listening to the distant sound of the ocean waves against the cliff face.

"So what's our next move?" asked Spitelout finally.

Stoick hesitated before asking, "Do you think it's too early to turn back?"

"Turn back? Stoick, you haven't been drinking ocean water, have you?"

Stoick gave Spitelout a look. Spitelout held his brother's gaze.

"Chief, we can't turn back now! This is our last search before winter! We have to make the most of it; otherwise, there was no point." He glanced at the rock, and his gaze hardened. He turned back to the chief.

"Stoick, I know you. You don't take loss particularly well, but you'll endure it to get the job done. Well brother, there's a job to be done. So until you find the nest, you'll endure the loss."

Stoick looked past his brother to where the rest of his Vikings were gathered.

"I can endure it, Spitelout, but can I ask Berk to endure it with me? The morale of the crew…"

"Stoick, all they need is a reason to fight. And I think there are eighteen pretty good ones on that rock over there. For you they might be a burden, but for us they're fuel for the fire."

Stoick remained silent for a moment, contemplating his brother's words. Eventually, he nodded.

"All right. I'll let them all rest for today; tonight I'll speak to them. We are not defeated yet."

Spitelout grinned and held out his hand. "There's the warrior I know."

Stoick gripped his brother's arm, and together they made their way down to the camp, leaving the eighteen names to the mercy of the wind and rain.

* * *

Astrid left dragon training in a sour mood. They had faced the Zippleback again, and it had quickly become apparent that dragons held grudges. The two-headed green monstrosity had made a point of going after Snotlout, Hiccup, Astrid, and even Fishlegs, while mostly ignoring Saphira and the twins.

Astrid had secretly been hoping during training that Hiccup would pull another trick from his sleeve, but alas it seemed to have been a one-time deal.

Immediately after practice she had tried to talk to him, but Gobber whisked him and Saphira away before she could blink. Failing plan A, she had looked for Fishlegs, only to notice that he had made himself scarce. She saw no value in talking to either Snotlout or the twins, so she too left the arena in a frustrated huff.

As she walked home, it occurred to her for the first time how alone she was. Now that Fishlegs had distanced himself, his absence was surprisingly noticeable. Astrid knew of no one else who would listen to her suspicions about Hiccup – and now she didn't even have Fishlegs.

'But I do have the books he loaned me,' she suddenly realized as she approached her house. 'The books about religion that have something to do with why he was so scared.' She began to run, relieved to at least have some sort of lead.

Because even though she knew about the eel, she had a feeling that this wasn't over.

She burst into her house, dashed to her room, grabbed the books and went right back out again to find someplace quiet to read.

* * *

Ruffnut and Tuffnut, contrary to popular belief, were not entirely stupid.

While it was true that they lacked good common sense, what many failed to recognize was that they possessed enough creativity, ingenuity, and craftsmanship to pull a multitude of pranks. They had never done the same prank twice.

The amount of planning they were doing for Gobber's prank, however, was on a whole new level.

Fortunately, they had developed a code for complicated pranks, as so were able to talk about it freely as they walked through the village that afternoon.

"So you'll throw your voice to make it sound like it's coming from the doodads," said Ruff.

"Yeah, and you and Saph will cut loose the gizmos," said Tuff.

"But how will we get the thing to do that?" asked the sister.

"Because the whatchamakalit is connected to the thingamabob, and Saph said she's good enough to get the whosmawhatsit to work," responded the brother.

"Wait, I thought the whosmawhatsit was connected to the whatchamakalit, and the thingamabob was connected to the thingy," said the girl.

"You're right, but we have to activate the whosmawhatsit before starting the thingamabob," the boy reminded her.

"Oh, that's right. So what about – "

"What in Thor's name are you talking about?" interjected a voice.

The twins turned sharply to see Astrid sitting on a barrel, a pile of books at her feet.

"It's none of your business," said Ruffnut, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Yeah! And it's not like you'd want to get involved in our pranks anyway," said Tuffnut, copying his sister's motion. Both Astrid and Ruff rolled their eyes.

"So what're you reading?" asked Tuff, oblivious to his slip of the tongue.

Astrid hesitated, then sighed. 'I guess it can't do any harm,' she thought.

"It's stupid, but I'm reading some of the old stories – religious ones. You know, Odin and Freya and all that."

The brother and sister glanced at each other, then broke into twin grins. "Oh really?" they asked together.

Astrid was immediately wary. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just that we know a thing or two about that ourselves," responded Ruffnut.

"You said you were reading about Odin and Freya?" asked Tuffnut, trying and failing to sound nonchalant. He leaned forward eagerly.

Astrid leaned away from him. "Unless you can tell me something I haven't already read, you have three seconds to get out of my face."

"I bet you don't know that Odin only speaks in rhymes," said Tuffnut immediately, even as he retreated.

Astrid paused.

"I… actually didn't know that."

"What about the fact that Freya was actually part of the Vanir, and only became one of the Aesir after the war between the two?" asked Ruffnut.

Astrid gaped for a moment before regaining her composure. She closed her book and tossed it into the pile at her feet. Then she stood and crossed her arms.

"Okay you two, it's story time. Tell me everything you know."

The twins briefly looked at each other in surprise.

"What's in it for us?" they inquired together.

"What do you want?" Astrid responded slowly, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Tuffnut held up a finger. "One moment, please," he said. Then he and his sister turned their backs to Astrid and began conversing in hushed tones. After about a minute the twins turned back around.

"All right, here's the deal," began Ruffnut.

"We'll give you the information you want," said Tuffnut.

"But in return, you have to agree to get certain… items, should we ask for them," continued Ruff.

"No questions asked!" they finished together.

Astrid pursed her lips.

"Don't worry, it won't be anything… _inherently_ dangerous," Ruffnut assured the other girl. "It's just that people are more likely to give stuff to you rather than us."

"Will I have to steal any of it?" Astrid asked, feeling dirty for even considering the twins' deal.

"No," they answered together, starting to smile.

Astrid sighed. "Fine. We have a deal. Now –"

She was cut off as Ruff and Tuff each grabbed one of her hands and began to drag her outside of the village.

"What the Hel?! Let go of me!" the shield-maiden shouted, to no avail.

Eventually, the twins deposited a very angry Astrid on a hillside. They wore smug expressions.

"Why did you literally drag me out here?" asked Astrid icily.

"Tuff tends to get… loud… when he tells stories," Ruff explained, a knowing expression on her face.

"And there's no one to interrupt us out here," said Tuff with a smile that was a bit _too_ eager.

Astrid's eyes flited between the twins. 'What did I get myself into?' she wondered.

"Story time!" announced the twins together.

What followed was a retelling of Norse religion as interpreted by Tuffnut, with Ruffnut's occasional help as a sound effect or secondary character. It took all of Astrid's focus to follow what was happening, but despite the over-the-top theatrics she was able to gain a serviceable understanding of the gods and their doings.

To Astrid, the gist of what the twins told her was as follows:

Odin was far more complicated than she had thought. He was the Allfather, the leader of all the gods, but preferred to spend his time away from Asgard in Midgard, the mortal realm. He was a warrior, but had little to do with strategy or honor; instead, he was the cause of 'battle-frenzy', a crazed and bloodthirsty state Astrid had seen in many a Viking during a dragon raid.

War and leadership did not define Odin. He was a god of ecstasy and fury, as well as wisdom and inspiration – all seemingly different things. The only thing that really connected all of his attributes, in Astrid's opinion, was the intensity surrounding them. He even gouged out his own eye to drink from a wisdom-well!

What really stuck with Astrid, however, was the fact that Odin seemed to not care about the rules. She had gone into her reading with the assumption that Odin would be like Stoick: a strong leader who cared deeply about tradition. Now, she realized that she had been completely wrong. Odin wasn't afraid to trick people for his own advantage. He choose to bestow wisdom on criminals as well as kings. And, he practiced seidr.

Astrid hadn't known what the word meant when Tuff first said it. However, he practically spat the syllables out, implying that it was not a good thing. Then, as Ruff and Tuff began talking about Freya, she began to get an inkling of why.

Much less was known about Freya than Odin, but apparently she was all about love and desire. Her… promiscuous ways had landed her in a bit fair bit of trouble and ridicule. She was technically one of the Vanir who became an honorary Aesir after the war between the two (for the record, the Vanir and Aesir were simply two different groups of gods).

"But all of that's boring," Tuffnut had said. "The juicy part is that Freya was a _volva_!" He spread his hands with a grin while Ruffnut had given a dramatic, "Dun dun DUN!"

Astrid had stared back at them with a blank expression.

The twins' composure broke for a split second as they glanced at each other. However, Tuff had recovered quickly.

"Freya was the one who brought seidr to the gods," said Tuff with an air of foreboding. "And those who choose to walk in her evil ways are doomed to be outcast. They are the _volva_ , women (and a few men) who roam the earth, spreading their evil ways!"

"Ok, but what _is_ seidr?" interrupted Astrid. "I get that it's bad, but why? What is it?"

Tuffnut didn't miss a beat.

"The evil of seidr is the desire to change destiny," he said gravely, "through any means necessary. Much of the practice is shrouded in mystery, but legend has it that those who practiced seidr could bless you with wealth…"

"Or curse you with poverty and sickness." chimed in Ruffnut, with equal gravity.

"They could control the flight of an arrow."

"They could hide themselves from any enemy."

"They could alter your very thoughts."

"They could even make the dead speak."

"They altered destiny," continued Tuff. "They played with lives, fancied themselves as gods and goddesses. They forgot that no one, not even the gods, can escape fate. And for that transgression…"

"All those who practice seidr," finished Ruff and Tuff together, "must die!"

Realization suddenly hit Astrid like a fire blast, making her light-headed. She didn't understand everything, but she had heard enough.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut continued their performance, but Astrid was no longer listening. She got up and ran back toward her home, much to the annoyance of the twins, but she didn't care.

She needed to think.

* * *

Ruffnut and Tuffnut watched Astrid run off with expressions that were more of confusion than anger.

"Did we scare her?" asked Tuff.

"It's Astrid. There's no way," responded Ruff.

"Huh. Should we go after her?"

Ruffnut glanced at the quickly darkening sky. "Nah, let her go. Besides, didn't we want to talk to Saph today?"

"Oh, that's right. We'd better get going."

The twins made their way back into the village and quickly wound their way to the smithy. As they neared it, however, Ruff suddenly gripped her brother's arm.

"Wait a minute," she said slowly.

"What is it?"

"Didn't Gobber throw us out last time?"

Tuffnut's eyes widened in understanding. "So how do we get in?"

Suddenly the man in question stepped out into the evening light. The twins immediately shut their mouths and hid in the shadows. They watched as he hobbled into the square, followed by Hiccup and Saphira.

"Aw man, looks like they're done," commented Tuff quietly.

"We can just follow Saph home," Ruff whispered back.

To their surprise, however, as soon as Gobber was out of sight, Hiccup and Saphira went straight back into the smithy. Throwing each other curious glances, they rose from their hiding place and sneakily followed them inside.

At least, they thought they were being sneaky. They fell on their butts in surprise when Saphira poked her head out at them from an area apart from the main smithy.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked with a laugh.

"We wanted to talk to you about our… project," said Tuff conspiratorially, throwing in a wink for good measure.

Saphira chewed her bottom lip for a moment in consideration. "Can you guys wait for a few minutes? I have to take care of something first."

"You and Hiccup doing something in the back?" asked Ruff slyly with a wink of her own.

Saphira visibly paled. She even shuddered a little. "Don't you _ever_ suggest anything like that again," she threatened. "We're just friends."

"Whatever you say," said Ruffnut noncommittally.

"Guess we'll wait outside then," said Tuffnut, finally standing and proceeding to help his sister up.

"Yup, see you in a few," said the girl. She turned and walked back into the smithy, closing the door behind her. As she did so, however, the twins caught a peek inside of what must have been Hiccup's personal workshop.

In the middle of the floor was something that looked suspiciously like some sort of saddle.

"What do you think they're working on?" Ruff asked her brother as they leaned against the smithy's doorframe.

"Dunno, but that saddle thing looked weird." Tuff responded. "Should we investigate?"

Ruffnut hesitated. "Let's get the prank done first. Working with people goes better when they're not mad at us."

"True, sister. Very true."

* * *

 **A/N (in case you ignored the first one)**

Thanks to Followers: .Random, EmmieSauce, GLADOSv2, HopefulHelpful, Httydandpercyjacksonlover, ImagineWonderland05, Kirei Aoi Tori, Lilithnocte, Mewaponny, N1ghtHunter90, Patsi24, RedHawkdude, RushAlias, SmileJPG, TheShatteredKnight1995, blasek0, carlin. sewere, leetom, luzleila. jimenez, mc arno, and ravenwoof5

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Wow I did not realize there were so many of you. I mean I look at the numbers a lot, but… wow. Thank you. Thank you so, so much for taking the time to read my rambling, and thank you so much more for thinking of it as a favorite of yours.

By the way I know this is late, again, but I'm going to try to update more this coming semester.

Peace and love to you and yours!

I own nothing but my OCs.


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